


SPIRIT of Christmas

by AkikoKotodame, Branch_of_Fate



Series: MCYT Fanfics [1]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Dream Team - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Sleepy Bois Inc, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Author 2 here we should just rename it to Wilbur's worst christmas ever when chapter 3 goes up lol, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Family Dynamics, I know that it's a lot of tags okay, Light cheating, M/M, Mild Swearing, Niki and Wilbur can be seen as romantic or platonic, Only the relationships with slashes are romantic, Schlatt and Wilbur could be seen as romantic or platonic, Very long chapters, first myct fic for author 2 (Branch_of_Fate), if cc's are reading this hi, im sorry, its really good I promise, lots of personal headcanons, my friend and i worked hard on it pls read, obligatory christmas fic, pls be nice, second mcyt fic for author 1 (me), slight angst, the relationships with &'s are family/platonic, we like constructive criticism but we're also sensitive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28306716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkikoKotodame/pseuds/AkikoKotodame, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Branch_of_Fate/pseuds/Branch_of_Fate
Summary: Philza Minecraft decided to do the impossible this year. He decided to host a dinner for his family on Christmas Eve AND a party on Christmas day. It goes just as well as you expect.ORPhilza, Kristin, Technoblade, WilburSoot, TommyInnit, Tubbo, Nihachu, Fundy, Dream, and (hopefully) Ranboo have a nice family dinner on Christmas Eve featuring a Secret Santa Gift Exchange.The rest of the Dream SMP show up on Christmas day and they have a party. If chaos wasn't already unleashed last night, it sure is now.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Clay | Dream/Floris | Fundy, Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Floris | Fundy & Wilbur Soot, Jschlatt & Wilbur Soot, Karl Jacobs & Luke | Punz, Niki | Nihachu & Wilbur Soot, Philza/Kristin, Ranboo & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Series: MCYT Fanfics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2080191
Comments: 28
Kudos: 332





	1. Christmas Eve Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my second MCYTs fanfic, but my first Dream SMP fanfic. I actually wrote this with my friend (@Branch_of_Fate) so make sure to give her some credit and love too! We came up with this fanfic a few weeks ago and have been dutifully working on it ever since. The first and second chapters are finished and both take place on Christmas Eve, hence why we are posting this today (It's currently December 24 where we live). The third and last chapter will be posted tomorrow or the day after! We aren't finished with it yet and we don't want to rush it or else the ending won't be good. Anyway, enjoy! Comments and Kudos are very much appreciated :)

Today was the day.

Phil was ecstatic. He took a deep breath as he looked out the window. The sun was just rising and the snow that covered the ground and trees were starting to slowly melt. Judging by the clouds coming in, it might snow some more later tonight. Phil hoped that everyone would be able to get to their house safely. His and Kristin’s house was a bit far from spawn, so hopefully, no one will get lost. Before Phil could further worry about his friends, he felt a jab at his side.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” Kristin smiled at him. Phil grinned back, and instead of responding immediately, he spins her around and leads her to the kitchen.

“I was thinking about all the mouths we have to feed today. Oh, and tomorrow as well. Isn’t everyone coming tomorrow?” replied Phil as he started grabbing pots and pans from the cabinets. Kristin opened the refrigerator and started to take out the foods they needed to cook.

“How can I forget about that? As many people as there will be, I’m very excited. For some of them, this will be their first time on our server. I’m also just as excited to see the returning ones,” hummed Kristin as she expertly maneuvered around the kitchen. Kristin was one of the greatest cooks Phil has ever met. 

In all the servers and worlds Phil has traversed, no one rivaled Kristin. The corner of Phil’s lips tugged upwards. Forgetting about the task at hand, Phil stopped what he was doing to stare at the love of his life. 

Kristin was whizzing around the kitchen and mumbling to herself. She frequently checked a recipe book for ingredients and separated what she needed into different piles. She glanced up and noticed Phil dumbly standing in the middle of the kitchen. Kristin blinked at him owlishly while Phil stared back with a far-away look on his face.

“Hello? Earth to Phil? You can’t blank out now! We need to hustle to get all this food cooked if we want to be able to feed your hungry children! You better not have muted me,” huffed Kristin as she frantically waved her hands in front of Phil. The hardcore man jumped, startled by the closeness of his wife. Kristin giggled at him while Phil laughed and playfully rolled his eyes. 

“Can’t I admire the beauty of my wife?” Phil cheekily responded. Kristin stared at him blankly for a second, then she rolled her eyes.

“You can stare at me AFTER we finish cooking! Niki is coming early to help out, but I don’t want her to come over and for us to not have any food at all when she gets here,” reasoned Kristin as she started prepping some vegetables. Phil nodded and did a soldier salute as he started grabbing the rest of the pots and pans they would need. 

An hour passed as the two skillfully worked as a team. While cooking, they decided to put on some Christmas music and danced around the kitchen. What’s the point of cooking if you can’t even have fun while doing it? The food was an afterthought to Kristin as she was spun around by Phil. The two erupted into giggles as the song ended. As the two calmed down, the doorbell rang throughout the house. 

“I’ll get it! It’s probably Niki,” called out Kristin as she made her way to the door. She hastily wiped her hands on her apron as she shuffled to the entrance of the house. She threw it open to reveal a tall man with slightly curly brown hair, a yellow sweater, and a tan coat. A young lady with blonde hair, a white coat, and round glasses stood next to the man. The young man gleefully waved at Kristin while the young lady’s face brightened up with joy at the sight of her.

“Wilbur! Niki! It’s so wonderful to see you guys again!” Kristin exclaimed as she lunged forward to trap Niki in a bear hug. After a tight hug with Niki, Kristin let go and grabbed Wilbur next. The two newcomers laughed at their dear friend and returned her warm and welcoming hugs.

“Oh! Where are my manners? Come in, you two. Here, you guys can take your coats off and put them right here,” Kristin directed them as she moved out of the doorway to make way for the young couple. 

"God, it's been a long time since I've been home," Wilbur said as he glanced around the foyer that he now stood in. The whole house was decorated with lights around the walls and with little decorations everywhere. That was definitely Kristin’s doing.

"Aww, it's so cute in here. It looks like a Christmas movie set," Niki said cheerfully. 

"Thank you so much, dear," Kristin replied with a smile, "It was a pain to put up the lights last year because the red stone we usually use was taken for a project by a certain someone so he had to spend a few days in the mines getting more." Kristin turned to face the man standing in the entrance from the kitchen as he shook his head and went to hug his foster son and his partner.

After everybody got their hugs and their welcomes, the girls went off into the kitchen to cook, leaving Wilbur and Phil together in the living room. Wilbur pulled a large box from out of his inventory into his hands. "What did you want us to do with these? Are we just opening them as soon as we arrive or are we waiting for everybody?" 

Phil nodded over to the tree that was in the corner of the room. "We are just going to put them over there for now and wait for the others to show up. It's a Secret Santa Will, you should know everybody has to be here."

Wilbur nodded and carefully dropped his package on the floor under the tree. The large box was covered in wrapping paper that depicted different types of fish wearing little Santa hats. There were other Christmas decorations and objects like candy canes and mistletoes adorning the present. Wilbur glanced down and noticed two other packages under the tree. 

One of them was a very small box crudely wrapped in red and green wrapping paper covered in Christmas themed creepers. The other box was larger than the first one but smaller than Wilbur’s gift. It was larger in width rather than height and neatly covered in blue wrapping paper with snowflakes. Wilbur giggled, immediately knowing who wrapped each gift. 

“What are you laughing at, Will?” 

Wilbur glanced up and noticed a softly smiling Niki looking at him, amused by his actions. She had removed her coat and Wilbur could now see the red and green sweater covered in reindeers and sleighs she was wearing. The thing was atrocious to look at due to the sheer amount of things happening, but somehow, Niki made it work. Wilbur flashed her a grin and admired the way the light perfectly landed on her head, making it seem like there was a halo above her. Her eyes shone brightly, mirroring the gorgeous Christmas lights around them and her smile was warm like the hot chocolate being prepared in the kitchen.

“I’m pretty sure Phil wrapped this blue gift since there’s no way that KRISTIN could make such a neat gift,” chortled Wilbur sarcastically, making sure that his adopted dad and mom could hear him. 

“Keep talking like that and you won’t get any steak!” chuckled Phil as he jokingly threatened his eldest. Wilbur was, by age, the oldest out of his four sons. However, Wilbur was the second child to be adopted by Phil, but that’s a story for another day.

The four of them worked like a well-oiled machine, shuffling in and out of the kitchen to prepare a grand meal for ten people. About 15 minutes after Wilbur and Niki arrived, the doorbell rang and loud voices could be heard outside the door. Phil made his way to the door and paused, listening in on the muffled conversation he could hear outside.

“I really don’t know if this sweater is appropriate!”

“What do you mean? I thought you liked baking?”

“I do! But those guys in the other lobby laughed at us when they saw my sweater.”

Phil could almost see the pout of his second youngest son. Phil knew exactly which two children were behind his door. He dramatically opened it and beamed at his two youngest sons.

“PHIL!!!” Both of them screamed at the top of their lungs before launching themselves into the open arms of the older man. Phil laughed at them and tightly hugged each of them. After the warm hugs, Phil pulled away and glanced at his two new guests. 

The tallest of the two had his bright blond hair messily kept under a red Santa hat while he sneakily smirked at his adopted father. He was wearing a black sweater with a red border and Christmas lights covering it with the words “Too Lit to Quit” pasted on the front. The shorter boy had his brown hair neatly combed with a reindeer headband on top of his head. His sweater was dark green with a giant Gingerbread Man in the middle and snowflakes surrounding the borders with the words “Let’s Get Baked” above and below the Gingerbread Man. 

Phil couldn’t help the hearty chuckle he emitted. The brunette looked at him in confusion while the blond snorted and started laughing along.

“Am I missing something?” the brunette nervously laughed.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Tubbo. Let me guess, did Tommy pick out your sweaters?” Phil inquired after wiping the small tears that started to develop while he was laughing. Tubbo nodded while Tommy grinned as he held his head high, proud of the fact that he tricked the older into wearing the sweater. 

Phil shook his head at the twins’ antics. Technically, Tubbo and Tommy weren’t twins but everyone just acted like they were. The two were the same age, with Tubbo only being a few months older than Tommy. The two were also inseparable, making it easy for everyone to think of the two as mischievous twins, always looking for trouble.

Phil ushered the two further inside the house and the trio made their way to the kitchen. The moment Wilbur saw Tommy’s sweater, he guffawed loudly. When he saw Tubbo’s sweater, he doubled over in laughter and clung to the island in the middle of the kitchen for support.

“That’s right, baby! The party has just started! THE Tommyinnit is now here! You may thank me now,” Tommy hollered as he paraded around the kitchen. Kristin watched in amusement while Niki giggled softly. 

“Nice sweater, Tubbo,” snickered Wilbur, finally getting up from the floor. He fell when Tommy did his second lap around the kitchen.

“Thank you, Wilbur! Tommy picked it out for me. He said that since I loved baking, I would love this sweater too!” Tubbo brightly smiled at Wilbur while smoothing out his sweater.

“Oh my god…” Phil face-palmed, thinking of the dumb yet hilarious decision his youngest son made. Wilbur merely grinned at Tubbo and pulled the younger in for a hug. 

After the group greeted the two newcomers, three of them stepped away from the kitchen to go to the Christmas tree. Niki pulled out a small package from her inventory that was flat and rectangular, covered in Christmas themed woodland animals. Tubbo pulled out a heavy-looking box from his inventory. It was smaller in size but considerably taller than Niki’s package and the wrapping paper surrounding it was decorated with little elves making toys. 

Lastly, Tommy pulled out a gift bag from his inventory. The gift bag was medium-sized but the pattern on it consisted of little T-rexes with candy canes in their tiny hands and Santa hats on their giant heads. On the side of the gift bag, the words “From  **M A S S I V E M A N** ” were messily scrawled on with black Sharpie. The three dropped off their respective gifts under the Christmas tree and made their way to where the others were gathered. 

Most of the easier foods to cook had been prepared and finished. A lot of it just needed to cook in the oven or on the stove so the adults were mostly talking and hanging around the kitchen. Tubbo and Tommy decided to sit in the living room and admire the handy work of Kristin's decorating. Tommy pulled out an old jukebox from a chest in the corner of the room and put on some generic Christmas instrumental music.

The two sat together on the gigantic, old couch in front of Phil's old cinderblock of a TV. Tubbo had wanted to play a movie but Phil said the boys shouldn't because it would just play in the background and nobody would watch it, so they settled for the only Christmas record in the house.

Around 30 minutes had passed and most of the food was done, some just needing a few final touches from Kristin and Niki. Wilbur and Phil wandered out of the kitchen into the living room and the boys all sat around chatting.

"Tommy, didn't you invite that one Enderman boy that your friends with to spend the night?" Wilbur asked.

"Oh yea, Ranboo," Tommy replied. "He told Niki he would be here in time for dinner."

"Well, it's already well into the afternoon," Phil chimed in. "Does he even know the way to the house from spawn?"

"I dunno, I thought so." Tommy shrugged.

"Tommy I swear to God if we are going to have to go look for him all night because you couldn't be bothered to give him directions…" Tubbo grumbled.

"Oh I got a message from Ranboo," Niki cut Tubbo off as she walked into the room wiping her hands on her apron. "He said he was fine and that he just got caught up doing something and might be running late but not to worry about him."

"Is he sure?" Tommy said with a bit of concern in his voice. "It's almost night time and monsters will be spawning soon." 

"Don't worry about Ranboo. He is very capable by himself and I'm sure he could handle any monsters that try to attack him," Niki chimed as she started walking to the back of the house while untying her apron.

"Well then, I guess we'll just wait for Techno and hopefully Ranboo shows up before the last of the guests," Phil shrugged. The others nodded in agreement and soon split off into different corners of the house to do their own thing. 

While the family inside the house was having their conversation, a certain pink haired individual was making his way down the path towards the place he once called home. The snow under his boots gave out a satisfying crunch with each step he took. He took a deep breath and watched as his breath came out in small white puffs. He chuckled to himself as he remembered his younger brother breathing hard on his face, acting like a dragon. 

He glanced up at the cottage and thought about all the memories he had of the place. He glanced at the front porch and remembered how he and his brothers used to race each other to greet their father as he came back from the woods. He gazed at the window looking into the kitchen and reminisced back when he and his brothers used to have food fights while they were cooking and eating. He looked up at the roof and recalled--

Wait.

What’s that on the roof? The young man tried to get a better look, but he couldn’t make out what it was. It seemed to be a… sleigh? What is a sleigh doing up there on the roof? The pink-haired man could’ve sworn that he saw something move up there, but he couldn’t tell for sure. He shrugged and thought that his dad may have just prepared ultra hard for Christmas this year by stepping up his decoration skills.

He finally stopped standing outside like a creep and made his way to the front door. He knocked on the door and rubbed his cold hands together for some warmth. The door opened, revealing Wilbur, holding a tray of gingerbread cookies.

“TECHNO!!! MY MAN! How’s it going, dear brother?” exclaimed Wilbur as his eyes widened with joy and a large smile covered his face at the sight of the slightly shorter man.

“Hallooo, Wilbur,” Techno chuckled as he accepted the awkward hug from Wilbur. At least this time, Techno can blame the awkwardness on the fact that Wilbur is holding a tray instead of his usual awkward interactions with others. Even with his own family, Techno can’t help but feel social anxiety bubble up. Unfortunately, it won’t just be his family tomorrow. Apparently, a ton of people are coming over for a Christmas party. Even more unfortunate, he won’t be able to run and hide in his room because he doesn’t even have a room in the house anymore! What a scam.

Techno tsked at his thoughts and went inside the warm abode with Wilbur taking the lead. Tommy was sitting on the couch when he glanced up and saw Wilbur walk in with Techno, his idol. While Tommy was a lot closer to Wilbur, he admired Techno with every fiber of his being. He would never tell the pig that, though. His ego was big enough. Anyway, neither of them stood a chance compared to Tubbo. The brunette was his best friend and platonic soulmate; the clingy duo is what everyone liked to call them. He knew they were right, though. He wouldn’t be able to survive without Tubbo by his side. If he does, it’ll be a sad existence. Tommy would never tell the bee-lover this, though. He knew that Tubbo would cry and cling to him like a baby. Tommy rolled his eyes and snickered at the image in his head.

“What are you chortling at, little gamer?” Techno asked softly (This is a reference to something, if you get it, BLESS YOU). Tommy looked up and saw The Blade looking down at him. Techno made his way around the room and sat on the couch, almost opposite of Tommy. The Blade’s shiny black leather boots were swapped out for some warm black boots lined with fur on the inside. He had on black trousers, but a large red and white winter coat replaced his usual royal cape. Instead of the usual golden crown perched on top of his head, a red Santa hat with a small crown pinned on it sat in its place instead. His pink hair was tied to a short ponytail that sat on his back. Tommy frowned. He still wasn’t used to seeing Techno without his super long hair in a braid. He hated that Dream cut his hair off during their great duel.

“Hey, you didn’t answer my question,” Techno commented as his younger brother looked up at him. Of course, Tommy wasn’t even paying attention to him. 

“Oh, nothing, big man. I was just thinking about how dumb you look with that hair. I may have to beat Dream up for cutting it off,” Tommy laughed, joking around. Techno rolled his eyes and chuckled along with him. 

“Hey, Techno? Before Phil finds out that his favorite child is here and hogs you all to himself, what have you been up to?” Wilbur asked and plopped down on the spot next to Techno. He patted the seat next to him for Niki to sit in. The couch in the living room was a large L shape so Tommy and Tubbo sat on one side while Techno, Wilbur, and Niki sat on the other side.

“Favorite child? Wilbur, you know that Phil is too nice to pick a favorite,” reassured Techno.

“He may not have admitted it to us or maybe even himself, but you’re definitely the favorite child,” Tommy chimed in while Tubbo nodded his head vigorously. Even Niki nodded her head in confirmation of Wilbur and Tommy’s claims. Huh, maybe he IS Phil’s favorite child. Before Techno could answer Wilbur’s initial question, a loud voice rang out through the house.

“TECHNO! I didn’t know you were here already! Welcome home, son,” beamed Phil as he quickly strode towards the couch where Techno was sitting. The Blade got up and met his father halfway, giving him a well-needed hug. It hasn’t been that long since the two have seen each other, but it’s still nice to meet again for the holidays.

“Hallooo, Phil. I’m glad to be back home,” Techno smiled as he pulled away. Tommy looked at Wilbur and the two rolled their eyes and shook their heads at the same time. When they realized that they did the same thing, the two laughed.

“By the way, I heard you guys say that Techno was my favorite child. I just want you guys to know that while this may appear true, it isn’t. I love each and one of you equally. Yes, even you, Tubbo. I just spend a lot of time with Techno because he needs me the most. Wilbur, you’re the eldest and I have no doubt that you can handle yourself well. Tommy and Tubbo, you two have each other so you don’t always need me. Techno, on the other hand, needs me to be by his side. I failed to be a good father if you guys thought I was favoring him,” Phil clarified.

“You’re fine Dad! Tommy and I were just messing around. We know why you spend more time with Techno. Plus, you’re right. I’m a big boy who can take care of himself and Tommy and Tubbo are fine on their own. We just wanted to tease him,” reassured Wilbur. Tommy frowned, knowing that his older brother was slightly lying, but the younger boy didn’t say anything, opting to enjoy the contentment evident in everyone’s faces.

“Hey, boys and Niki. Dinner is ready. Do you guys mind helping out by setting up the table?” inquired Kristin. 

Everyone nodded and they made their way to the dining room. Niki set up the plates, Tubbo set up the cups, and Tommy set up the utensils since he wasn’t trusted with glassware. The others grabbed the numerous food items on the menu for their feast and set them up all over the large 10-seater table. Niki was counting out the plates when she realized something.

“Wait, if Ranboo can’t make it, why are we still missing two people?” asked Niki. Just as she asked that question, the doorbell rang.

“Speaking of the devils,” Techno muttered under his breath. 

Tubbo, Wilbur, and Niki all looked to Techno confused. Tommy cleared his throat and excused himself to go snoop on Phil from the door that led from the living room to the opening foyer of the house.

Tommy watched as Phil stopped right in front of the door and peered out the window just to be sure it was who he thought it was. He noticed Phil sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose as he then tried his best to force a smile. He immediately knew who it was based on the reaction alone and he rolled his eyes and grumbled as he walked back to the kitchen.

Phil opened the door and was greeted by two young men. One was lanky and a bit taller than Tommy; he pretty much loomed over Phil. He had on a black and orange sweater that matched his bright orange hair, as well as his bright orange tail and ears that were a clear give away that he was very uncomfortable with the current situation he found himself in. The other young man was a few inches shorter and wore an infamous sickly neon green hoodie, as well as his mask that was a creepy shade of white with a black smiley face that was crudely painted on it. It covered his entire face other than his blonde hair. The only real difference in the outfit that the latter boy was wearing that Phil could gather was that he changed out his normal leather boots that he normally wore for snow boots and that he had put antlers on the ribbon that kept his mask on his face, making it look like the boy had antlers on the sides of his head. 

“Fundy! Dream! Welcome! You guys are just in time. We were just about to eat,” Phil said as he attempted to cheerfully greet them. However, the grimace evident on his face gave him away. Tommy sighed, irritated. He didn’t know that the green bastard was invited to the dinner. No wonder Techno was annoyed. Tommy moved back to the dining room before Phil caught him sneaking around. Tubbo looked at him with a questioning glance and Tommy just smiled at him to reassure him that everything was fine. 

The room was stunning. The golden chandelier above the table glistened with the reflection of the twinkling lights surrounding the house and the flickering candles on the table. A jukebox in the corner of the room played some soft instrumental Christmas music. Garlands and mistletoes were scattered about the room. It was like the air sparkled with magic and joy. Everyone sitting around the table could feel the Christmas spirit coasting through their veins. However, the atmosphere was shattered when three figures walked into the room. 

“You two can take those two empty chairs right there,” Phil gestured at the table and took his seat at the head of the table. To his right sat Kristin with Niki and Wilbur next to her. To Phil’s left sat Techno, Tommy, and Tubbo all in a row. 

At the sight of his son, Wilbur jumped up from his chair and eagerly ran to Fundy with his arms open. The fox awkwardly hugged his father, back stiff with discomfort. 

“My precious boy! Look at you. You look absolutely adorable. My little man,” Wilbur cooed as he grabbed Fundy’s face with his hands. The musician fondly looked at his son before pulling him in for another tight hug. Finally, Wilbur let go and diverted his attention from his son to the blond man next to him. 

“Dream,” Wilbur curtly greeted the man with a cold expression on his face. 

“Wilbur,” Dream smirked back. He moved forward and grabbed his fiancée’s hand, pulling him away from the brunette. Wilbur and Dream glared at each other while Fundy’s gaze nervously switched from his father to his fiancée. 

“Can we eat now? As much as I enjoy violence, I’m hungry,” a deep voice grumbled, breaking the tense silence. Everyone turned to the source, finding Techno lazily looking around, surveying the room. 

“Of course, Techno. I’m sure that everyone must be hungry and it’s not right that all this amazing food isn’t being eaten yet,” laughed Dream, looking at his friendly nemesis. The Blade merely grunted and shifted in his chair. 

There were two seats left: one next to Wilbur and the other next to Tubbo. Wilbur grabbed his son’s hand and the two sat next to each other. Fundy worriedly glanced back at Dream but the latter gave him a reassuring smile and sat across from him. 

Tubbo stiffened when Dream sat next to him and the former took a shaky breath. Tommy noticed and elbowed Tubbo. The younger motioned for him and Tubbo to switch seats. The bee-lover was reluctant at first, but one glance at Dream’s mask quickly made up his mind. He and Tommy switched seats. 

Now, Phil was at the head of the table with Kristin, Niki, Wilbur, and Fundy to his right and Techno, Tubbo, Tommy, and Dream to his left. The other end of the table was empty since Ranboo couldn’t make it in time for the dinner. 

“As one of the hosts of this dinner, I would like to say thank you from the very bottom of my heart to everyone for showing up to this wondrous occasion. I remember many years ago when it was just me in these woods. Then, I met my son, Techno. Soon after, I met Wilbur, then Tommy. And of course, I won’t forget to mention my dear wife, Kristin. I’m no longer alone in these worlds since I have a family. Since then, my family has grown to include Tubbo, Niki, and Fundy. Soon, it will hopefully include Dream. Now, enough of this sappy stuff before I start crying. Let’s eat!” Phil proclaimed as he made a little speech before dinner. 

Kristin tenderly looked at her husband with love evident in her eyes. Niki and Tubbo brightened up when their names were called out by Phil. Techno, Wilbur, and Tommy softly smiled at their dear father. Fundy grinned at his grandfather’s words while Dream’s breath hitched when his name was mentioned, before a sad smile replaced his shocked expression. Immediately after Phil’s heartfelt speech, everyone dug into the delicious food laid out before them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Please don't spread hate of any kind. Only good vibes here ^_^ As always, comments and kudos are always appreciated! Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
> 
> (4885 Words)


	2. Gift Exchange and Ranboo's Christmas Adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the lovely Christmas dinner, the group decides to do their Secret Santa Gift Exchange. Things go well until they don't. Oh and Ranboo finally shows up. He has some explaining to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter. If you did, you guys will probably enjoy this chapter! There's some light angst (written by my friend), but it's not anything major. I wrote the Ranboo part and I would like to say that it's my favorite part of this whole book lmao

The Sleepy family and friends gathered around the Christmas tree in the living room. Tommy and Tubbo sat down on the floor, each holding a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. Phil sat on the recliner chair in the corner with Kristin propped up on the arm rest. Wilbur, Niki, Techno, Fundy, and Dream were all scattered on the large couch.

“Alrighty! Let’s get started with the Secret Santa Gift Exchange. Before coming here, a message was sent out to each person here, telling them who they had to get a gift for. Just so you know, everything was completely random. I didn’t choose who you had to give a gift to. Actually, a program that Fundy made did, so thank you, dear,” explained Kristin, sweetly smiling at Fundy. 

The fox in question perked up and a light blush spread across his cheeks, embarrassed that everyone’s attention was on him. He felt a hand slip into his and he looked to his side, finding Dream grinning at him. The latter was very proud of his  fiancée’s coding skills. After all, that’s how Fundy scored a date with him. 

“Now that that’s explained, who wants to start?” Kristin announced, looking around the room. 

“I’ll start! I’m the host after all,” laughed Phil, standing up and grabbing the small box covered in red and green Creeper themed Christmas wrapping. He made his way back to his chair and sat down. Sneakily glancing at his wife, he held the box out for her. 

“Really? Oh dear, I can’t believe that you were my Secret Santa,” giggled Kristin as she happily accepted the box held out to her.

She carefully opened the package and found a wooden box staring back at her. She popped it open and gasped at the content inside it. A beautiful and intricate golden necklace sat on a red and silk cushion in the middle of the box. The pendant of the necklace was a compass. She carefully picked it up and admired it in her hands.

“I know how horrible you are with directions and how you suck at finding your way in general so I decided to get you a compass. It’s also a necklace so you can always wear it and never forget it. The best thing about this is that it’s no ordinary compass. I enchanted it so that it will always point to my ring. So wherever you are, you can always follow the compass and you’ll be able to find me. That way, you’ll never be lost,” gushed Phil, lovingly staring at his dear wife. 

Kristin looked up at him with tears in her eyes. Without saying a word, she pulled her husband in for a dear hug. Phil teared up a bit, tightly hugging the love of his life. After a few seconds, they pulled away. Both had tears in their eyes and loving smiles adorning their faces. They laughed at each other’s similar appearances. Sometimes, words don’t need to be exchanged to showcase two people’s love for one another.

“WHAT A SIMP!” Wilbur yelled out.

“WIL! Don’t be rude!” gasped Niki, lightly hitting Wilbur. Everyone in the room laughed as Wilbur gave Niki an apologetic look. The young lady playfully rolled her eyes, but laughed along with everyone else.

“Okay, since Phil went first. I guess I’ll go next. God, I don’t think I could top this amazing gift from Phil, but here we go,” Kristin admitted as she made her way to the Christmas tree. She grabbed the package covered in blue wrapping paper decorated with snowflakes.

“This is for the sweetest  _ honey _ , I could ever ask for, Tubbo. I hand-knitted this sweater for you. Thank you for being such an amazing son, my dear. Merry Christmas,” smiled Kristin while handing Tubbo her gift. Tubbo sweetly thanked her and eagerly tore open the package. Inside, he found a Christmas-themed Bee sweater. Tubbo gasped. It was ugly, but endearing.

“Thank you so much, Kristin! I LOVE IT! It’s perfect!” Tubbo exclaimed, jumping up and running to Kristin to give her a hug. She happily hugged Tubbo back and the latter doesn’t waste time in taking off his sweater and putting the new one on. 

“Me next! Me next!” Wilbur eagerly said after Tubbo sat down on the floor. The tall man grabbed the largest gift under the Christmas tree and brought it over to Philza Minecraft, dropping it by his feet.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS, DAD!” Wilbur yelled out, dramatically throwing his arms up. Phil laughed at him as he bent down and tore open the wrapping paper, revealing a large box. 

To a person with little to no fishing experience, it would have looked like a normal wooden chest, but just a bit smaller; however, Phil knew exactly what it was. Phil looked up at the young man standing over him with an excited look plastered on his face.

"You did not," Phil stared up at him.

"I have three months worth of splinters to prove that I did," Wilbur replied cheekily. "Well don't just stare at it, open it and look inside."

Phil immediately flipped up the latch that locked the little box and opened it up to find that it was indeed a cute little handmade tackle box. Inside, it had a little tray that Wilbur managed to rig that when it opened, it lifted up to reveal more of the contents at the bottom. The tackle box as well was stocked and Phil couldn't believe that Wilbur knew most of the things that would belong in one like crankbaits and spoons. Hell, it even looked like Wilbur made them by hand since they seemed to be made out of metal scraps and painted colors that looked like different fish. Wilbur even remembered to put in line, hooks, and pliers. The man even put bobbers in the box that were painted into having cartoony dead women and anteaters painted on them. 'Always a classy and morbid touch,' Phil thought to himself.

Phil could literally feel the excitement radiate off of Wilbur when he went to close the box again and noticed a little carving in the top. It said "For the best fisherman and dad ever." Phil set the box to the side, stood up, and bear hugged his son for the second time that day. 

After Wilbur and Phil’s heartwarming exchange, Tubbo got up and made his way to the tree, grabbing one of the packages. He sat back down on his spot, next to Tommy. He silently held out the box to Tommy and nervously bit his lip. He really hoped that Tommy would like his gift. The said boy grabbed the box and tore the wrapping paper like an animal. When he saw the brown box under the wrapping paper, he opened it and took out the heavy object inside.

Tommy stared at the most beautiful sight he’s seen in a long time. In his hands was a snow globe, but the scene inside made his heart melt and swell with happiness. Inside was a sight that Tommy will never forget. The scene depicted two boys, one with blond hair, wearing a white and red shirt and the other a brunette with a green shirt. The two were happily talking with one another on a bench. Not just any bench, The Bench. 

Tommy felt tears prickle his eyes when he thought about everything that happened on that server. He took a shaky breath and gingerly shook the delicate globe in his hands. The twinkling lights of the Christmas tree reflected off the globe as Tommy watched soft and delicate snow going up and around the little scene. Through the glass, he could see Tubbo anxiously staring at him, waiting for his reaction. Tommy felt his heart stutter and his throat seize up. If he was a smaller man like the green bastard or Phil the Simp, he would’ve cried. But no, Tommy was no Beta Male. He pathetically puffed up his chest, gently set the globe down, and yeeted himself into his best friend’s arms. 

Tommy’s body slightly shook with his very obvious sobs. It was a sight to see. A 6’3” child clinging to his brother, a boy very much smaller in stature compared to him. Tubbo laughed at Tommy’s antics and warmly hugged his best friend back.

“I-I’m not crying, Tubbo. I’m a big man, Alpha males don’t cry,” Tommy sniffled, pulling away from Tubbo with a slight pout on his lips. The brunette giggled at his best friend’s expression and pulled him in for another tight hug. 

“You’re right, Tommy. You are an Alpha Male, but don’t worry. Alpha Males can still cry and it’s okay,” Tubbo soothed Tommy, which made Tommy sob even harder. After Tommy stopped crying, he pulled away from Tubbo and cleared his throat. 

“Who’s next?” Tommy shakily asked, voice slightly raw from the crying.

“I’ll go next, Tommy,” Niki softly spoke up, standing up to grab her present. After retrieving it, she held it out to her partner-in-crime. 

The orange-haired individual carefully took it from her hands and opened it up. Niki’s gift was a book, a scrapbook to be exact. It was wide and flat, thin in height. On the cover was a picture of Phil, Techno, Wilbur, Tommy, Niki, Eret, and Fundy. The fox was in the middle of the family picture with his father to his right and Niki to his left. Next to Wilbur stood Phil and Techno while Eret and Tommy stood next to Niki. However, Eret’s face was covered by a crudely drawn face on a piece of paper that was taped onto the scrapbook. 

When Fundy opened it up and flipped through, he saw numerous pictures and scenes that brought back so many memories. One of them showcased him wearing the new L’Manburg uniform. Another had Wilbur strumming on his guitar and singing while everyone was gathered around the campfire. The last picture showed everyone in the dinner gleefully eating and enjoying one another’s company. Niki must’ve secretly taken it when she excused herself to go to the bathroom.

“Sorry about the Eret pictures,” Niki grimaced. “I started making this a long time ago, but then Eret betrayed us so I scratched his face out so it wouldn’t upset you. But then, he had a comeback and he suddenly wanted to adopt you so I attempted to redraw his face. But then, he forgot about the adoption day and stood you up so I scratched him out again. I honestly don’t know if that was a good idea or not.” Fundy laughed at Niki’s explanation.

“It’s perfect, Niki. I feel like the quirky Eret pictures make this scrapbook look even better,” giggled Fundy, offering Niki a hug after setting the scrapbook down.

“This is actually so funny because I’m your secret Santa, too!” Fundy revealed while he grabbed the present for Niki from his inventory. He handed her a large neatly decorated gift bag. She gratefully accepted it and pulled out the object inside. 

It was a quaint toaster oven painted pastel colors like pink and yellow. There were pretty flowers drawn on it as well. Niki couldn’t help but notice two cute figures on the side of the toaster oven. It was her and Puffy wearing flower crowns and smiling brightly. Niki turned the oven over and found the Coconut2020 logo on it. The heads of Fundy and Niki were painted on either side of the logo. Niki felt her heart swell and melt. 

“Fundy… This is amazing. I love it! Thank you so much,” cried Niki, opening her arms to hug the fox. Fundy laughed and hugged her back.

“You’re welcome, Niki. I figured that since you and Puffy were opening a bakery, a toaster oven would be helpful. I painted all that stuff on it since the regular toaster oven seemed too boring. The Coconut2020 logo was my personal touch so you will never forget that you’re the best vice president I could ever ask for,” Fundy warmly said as he and Niki pulled away.

“I can’t thank you enough, Fundy. I was so honored to be your vice president and I would gladly do it again,” Niki responded, giving the orange-haired boy a heartwarming smile.

“Who’s next?” asked Fundy, looking around.

“Uhhh, I’m Ranboo’s Secret Santa and he’s not here so I can’t exactly give it to him,” Techno shrugged, awkwardly pursing his lips.

“That’s fine, Techno. You can give your present to Ranboo whenever he gets here,” suggested Tubbo and Techno nodded in agreement.

“Dream, baby, why don’t you go next?” Fundy piped up, squeezing his  fiancée’s hand.

“Don’t call me ‘baby’,” muttered Dream, sliding his hand out of Fundy's with annoyance. The fox looked at him with hurt in his eyes.

“Watch it, boy,” growled Wilbur, glaring at the blond man.

“Right, sorry,” mumbled Dream, gritting his teeth. “Anyway, I guess I can give my gift. It’s actually for you, future father-in-law.” 

Dream pulled a large box out of his inventory. It wasn't even wrapped instead it looked like he just left it in the box it was delivered in. He passed the box over to Wilbur with what felt like a large grin on his face underneath his mask. 

"I did  _ a lot _ of research into what would be the best gift for you," Dream all but giggled, his mask not at all breaking its line of sight with Wilbur. Its creepy smile probably hiding a worse one underneath.

Wilbur stared down at the box that was now in his hands and quickly glanced over at his brothers on the couch beside him. Techno had sat up and was leaning forward giving off the impression that if Dream so much as moved too quickly that he would probably jump on him. Tubbo had a very strained expression on his face and his fingers were tapping on the arm of the couch, and Tommy was being the least bit subtle with his inventory open moving things around.

Wilbur turned his face back to look at Dream who had his arms crossed in annoyance. "C'mon. Why are you all acting like it's a bomb or something. Like I might not be on friendly terms with a few of the people in the house but we are still family." 

Wilbur raised an eyebrow and then looked back down at the box and began to open it slowly. It felt like an hour before he got the tape sealing it off before he looked inside and saw a sweater. Not just any sweater though. Wilbur felt his stomach drop as he dropped the box down and stormed out of the room with a set jaw. The rest of the family could hear the front door open and then slam shut. 

Fundy shot up and grabbed his partner by the sleeve of his sweater. "What the Hell did you put in that box!?"

"Christ, it was just a sweater. I don't know why he needed to be so butthurt about it."

Fundy and Dream continued to have their argument as Phil and Kristin got up and followed Wilbur outside. Techno sat there glaring at the fighting couple as if debating on whether or not he should get involved while Niki attempted to calm down the two. Tommy and Tubbo meanwhile began to rifle through the box that now laid turned over on the floor. The boys dug out the sweater and stared at it as they realized why it upset Wilbur so much. 

It was a Schlatt2020 sweater. To say Schlatt and Wilbur had a bad relationship would be a gross understatement. The two had been friends for a long time before a lot of troubling things happened resulting in the two not speaking in years. Almost everybody knew about this. 

Tommy felt an angry pit form in his stomach. Of course the green bastard would do something like this. Tubbo looked at his friend to tell him not to do anything stupid but it was too late. The blonde had already stood up and walked over to the Christmas tree. He picked up his gift bag and then threw it as hard as he could at Dream. It hit him alright. Right in the side of his face where he was aiming and made a loud sound as whatever contents were inside broke on impact along with Dream's mask. 

The room went dead silent as Dream slowly turned and removed the remaining bits of his mask to reveal an expression that said without the need for words that he was going to murder the child on the other side of the room, but he didn't move instead stood there just glaring at him. Tommy opened and shut his mouth repeatedly before finding what he finally wanted to say.

"Well. That  **_was_ ** my present to you. But y'know how these things go. You might want to look at it though. I put a lot of effort into it just for it to go to an ass like you," Tommy spat at him as he stomped into the back of the house followed by again the opening and slamming of another door to the outside. 

Niki rubbed her temples as she gave up trying to say anything and just slumped down on the couch holding her head in her hands. Tubbo ran out the house following Tommy and yelling at him for being an idiot. Fundy started to try and argue again before Dream just told him to stop as he bent down and picked up the now ruined gift. 

He opened it and looked to see something that made his blood turn cold. He pulled out what was once a little clay version of a horse but was now a bunch of dried shards. If the fact that he could tell that the horse was handmade by Tommy made him feel bad enough, it was also painted to match the colors of his now long dead horse, Spirit. 

"Goddamnit," was all Dream could say before Wilbur and his parents walked back in now much calmer. The party of three looked around confused at what laid before them. 

"What happened here?" Wilbur asked, looking at the mess of clay and mask shards that were now on the floor where Dream was kneeled down, "And why is your mask…- What the Hell did Tommy do!?"

"Nothing I didn't deserve," Dream said as he pulled another mask out of his inventory. "Fundy, could you be a dear and show me where the back door is."

Fundy looked around the room and tucked his tail under again as he grabbed his partner's hand and pulled them out to the back of the house. 

"Um… Dream," Fundy muttered as the two walked out the back door at the end of the almost comically long hallway that had obviously been lengthened repeatedly over the years. "You are still bleeding a lot. Do you want me to get you a res pot?"

"Yes, actually, thank you, babe," Dream sounded like Fundy cut off whatever thoughts he had. Dream had finally looked up from the floor to notice that Fundy had changed into his Fox form. His face had turned into a ball of orange fluff which only happened when the shapeshifter was very upset about something. Dream felt the pit in his stomach double in size.

"I'll be back in a minute then. I think the two will probably just be sitting on the bench out there and you will be them as soon as you walk out." Fundy gave one last awkward smile before he left back down the hallway.

Dream opened the back door and went out into the yard. It was already starting to become nightfall and he was surprised more mobs hadn't spawned other than a few zombies and skeletons that littered around the treeline and a bunch of spiders on the roof for some reason. 

He looked out over the yard and saw all the random builds that had been created and destroyed over the years the amount of cobblestone showed that it was probably mostly Tommy that spent his time out here. Dream signed as just like Fundy said, he saw the two not too far from where he was sitting on a bench with the older of the two yelling at the younger. 

Dream wiped most of the blood off of his face from under his mask as he walked over to them. The two quickly noticed him and got quiet as he approached.

"What do you want now? Do you want a fight?" Tommy grumbled, "I've got a bow and a shit ton of arrows if you want to have another 1v1 duel for your honor."

"No," Dream replied, sounding sincere which was very weird for Tommy to hear, "I came out here to apologize. I shouldn't have tried to mess around with your family during Christmas. It was a shitty thing to do, to bring up bad memories and I'm sorry."

"What?"

"You heard me. I'm sorry. Everybody else did nice genuine things for each other and I instead just did something dumb. I did look at what you made me and I feel… bad. Look, you don't have to forgive me but just tolerate me for one more day just to let Fundy be happy. He was looking forward to this and I already have to apologize to him and your brother."

Tommy was silent for a minute while he just glared at Dream. "Alright then," the teen said as he stood up from the bench, "Fundy is whatever but as long as you apologize to Wilbur, this didn't happen."

"Fine, then. I'll take that." Dream stuffed his hands into his hoodie pockets and turned to go back into the house, but was instead greeted by Wilbur standing at the doorway. Dream groaned and shook his head.

"You should already know I'm sorry and I'm not repeating what I already said."

"I know," Wilbur said, "I'm pretty much over it now and you’re right. Fundy's happiness should come before your dumb antics. So I hope in the future you remember that." Wilbur turned and went back into the house and the other three followed.

“It’s getting late, we should start preparing for bed. Tomorrow will be another big day since a bunch of people are coming over for the Christmas party,” Phil yawned out, stretching his arms. Tubbo nodded, tiredly leaning his head on Tommy’s shoulder. 

“Phil and I will sleep in our room. Wilbur, you and Niki can sleep in your old room. Everything in there should still be the same since we haven’t changed anything ever since you guys moved out. The same applies to you, Tommy. You and Tubbo can sleep in your old bedroom,” suggested Kristin.

“That should work perfectly. Thanks, Kristin,” smiled Wilbur whilst grabbing Niki’s hand. The two said their goodbyes and made their way up the stairs to Wilbur’s old room. Tommy and Tubbo did the same and went to Tommy’s room. 

Back when Phil was the only one who lived in these woods, he built a small cottage for himself with one bedroom. When he met Techno, he added in another bedroom. After meeting Wilbur, the three of them expanded Phil’s cottage to create more space and another bedroom for the newcomer. After Tommy started living with them, Phil added a final bedroom. On the outside, everything about the cottage seemed intentional when in reality, almost nothing was planned out. Regardless, it was a comforting home for the Sleepy family.

“Fundy, Dream, you two can take my room,” a deep voice rang out in the silence left in the wake of the initial four leaving the room.

“What? Really? Where are you gonna sleep, Techno?” questioned Fundy.

“I’ll just take the couch, I’ll be fine.” Techno waved off their concern and started grabbing blankets and pillows from the closet.

“If you say so,” Fundy shrugged as he motioned for him and Dream to go upstairs to Techno’s room. Phil and Kristin said their goodbyes to Techno and made their way to their bedroom. 

Techno heaved a huge sigh. His social battery has been running negative at this point. Thankfully, the disagreements and fights didn’t involve him this time. Although he wouldn’t be opposed to seeing some violence or even participating in it, he knew that it wouldn’t be right considering the fact that it was Christmas Eve and everyone here was supposed to be happy and joyous. Regardless of tonight’s events, Techno was tired and needed some serious sleep. 

He made his way to the fireplace and put it out. It was warm enough in the house that there’s no reason for a fire. Plus, what if something accidentally catches on fire and burns the house down while everyone was asleep? Techno wouldn’t want to be held accountable for that. 

After putting out the fire, he finally settled into the couch and wrapped himself up in some warm blankets. ‘Ahh, finally, some peace and quiet so I can sleep’, thought Techno as he started to drift off into some well-needed rest. 

THUD.

“Owww… That hurt more than I thought,” a slightly deep voice interrupted the tranquil silence. Techno, still half asleep, opened his eyes and looked up. 

“Hey, Techno.”

“Oh, hello Ranboo,” Techno responded. After one glance at the boy, the pig man dropped his head back on the pillow and snuggled deeper into his blankets. He was about to fall asleep again when he realized what he just witnessed.

“Wait… RANBOO?!” Techno exclaimed, jolting up and doing a double take. 

There, standing in the middle of the fireplace, was a very tall human-Enderman hybrid. His half-black-half-white hair was covered in soot and snow. Actually, all of him was covered in soot and snow. The red Santa suit he wore was incredibly dirty, almost as if he was rolling around outside. His green and red heterochromatic eyes bashfully looked at the floor when Techno looked him in the eyes.

“What in the Notch are you doing here?!” gawked Techno, his jaw dropped on the floor.

“Well, you see. I… It’s a long story,” Ranboo sighed, moving out of the fireplace and suddenly sitting on the floor. The large red sack he carried on his back fell on the floor with a muffled thud.

“I’m listening,” Techno shot back, fully sitting up and giving his full attention to the Enderman hybrid. Ranboo scratched the back of his neck with an embarrassed expression on his face and heaved a great sigh. He got comfortable before starting the story of how he ended up on the roof of Philza Minecraft’s house.

It all started when Tommy messaged him about coming to the party. He had never been to a Christmas party before, let alone one that included a Secret Santa gift exchange. He didn’t know what a Secret Santa was and he was reluctant to ask Tommy since he knew that the younger boy would tease him to no end. Instead, he prompted to do his own research. 

He remembered back when he used to live with his Aunt Niki that she would tell him stories about this big red man named Santa Claus. According to legends, he would traverse the world and give presents to good children in the middle of the night. He drove around in a sleigh pulled by magical flying reindeer. Ranboo wondered how he managed to get into the house, but he encountered his answer a minute after the question formulated in his head. The big man used chimneys. Ranboo hoped that Phil had a chimney. 

After making up his mind, Ranboo decided to make himself a Santa suit. Niki taught him how to sew, so it was fairly easy. Afterwards, he created a large red sack made out of random fabrics and blankets he found in his house. Now, all Ranboo needed to do was find a sleigh and magical reindeer. The sleigh part should be easy enough, but the magical reindeer… not so much.

Ranboo managed to find a sleigh for sale and bought it for a cheap price. He tried to find reindeers, but all the ones he encountered didn’t fly. And no, Ranboo didn’t throw them off a cliff. And even if he did, they survived. It’s fine.

Anyway, Ranboo had to make do with something else. He was sitting outside of his porch at night when he heard it. The unmistakable sound of an Enderman teleporting. Suddenly, a light bulb turned on in Ranboo’s head. That’s it! Making up his mind, Ranboo prepared for his ingenious plan.

That was how Ranboo ended up on Philza’s roof. He decided to dress up like Santa Claus, take the sleigh, pile it up with presents, and use his teleportation powers to get on the roof. Now, a normal person would’ve gone on the ground with horses or even regular reindeer. But Ranboo wasn’t a regular person. If he’s going to be like Santa Claus, he’s going all out.

Fortunately for Ranboo, he inherited some teleportation magic from his ancestors, the Endermen. Unfortunately, the hybrid didn’t have anyone to teach him how to use his powers so everything he knew how to do was self-taught. This meant that he wasn’t very good at the whole teleporting thing. That’s how he ended up stuck on the roof.

Now, Ranboo knows what you’re thinking. Why not just call Niki or Tommy and ask for help? Well, calling Tommy was off the table. If the younger ever found out that his friend was dumb enough to get stuck on a roof in a ridiculous Santa suit, Ranboo would never hear the end of it. 

Calling Niki wasn’t too bad of a suggestion, but Ranboo knew that his aunt would make a big deal out of it. Ranboo recently moved out of her house so he could live on his own. She was reluctant to let him go since she felt that he needed someone to keep him safe and to take care of him. Ranboo countered that argument with the words: “I’m a big boy!”. Strangely enough, it worked. 

However, if Niki saw that he couldn’t take care of himself, he would disappoint her and prove her previous statements correct. Even though her statements were somewhat true, Ranboo’s ego would take a huge blow. Thus, he couldn’t ask for help. He has to suffer on his own.

He teleported on the roof a bit after Tommy and Tubbo arrived. Whenever Techno was walking up the path into the house, Ranboo was already there. That’s what Techno saw when he looked up at the roof. Ranboo hid because he wanted to surprise everyone and impress them with his greatness. 

However, things didn’t exactly go according to plan. When Ranboo was about to make his grand entrance into the house via the chimney like ol’ St. Nick does, he found himself coughing up a storm. The fireplace was lit, warming up the whole house. 

Ranboo face-palmed. Hard.

Of course the fireplace would be on! It’s the middle of winter! It’s freezing cold outside so they would want to keep warm. The easiest way to do that was to keep the fire on. Now, Ranboo looked even more like an idiot. There was NO WAY that he was asking for help now. If he had to freeze his butt off out here on the roof, then so be it! He was not about to make a fool out of himself.

Finally, after hours of shivering, making snow angel after snow angel, and fighting off the numerous spiders that got up on the roof, the fireplace went out. This was Ranboo’s chance! Energized by an adrenaline rush, Ranboo grabbed his sack and jumped down the chimney. 

Now, Ranboo knows what you’re thinking: “RANBOO! Why would you jump down like that?! What if you get hurt?! What if the coals are still hot or the wood is still smoldering?!” Ranboo would like to say he had an elaborate plan, but in reality, he was so cold that he would rather tank the fall and fire damage than spend even a second longer out on the roof.

And that’s how Ranboo ended up covered in soot and snow, sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace. Techno stared at him, dumbfounded. The two had a mini-staring contest while Techno processed the information. 

When he snapped out of it, he noticed that Ranboo was shivering. ‘He’s probably freezing. I can’t believe he didn’t die of hypothermia or something out there,’ thought Techno. The pig man suddenly got up and shuffled to the kitchen. After a few minutes, he came back with a steaming cup of hot chocolate and an arm full of blankets and pillows. 

“Here, drink some of this. You’re probably freezing. You may also have hypothermia, but who knows. I don’t know how Endermen-hybrids work, so you may just be cold,” explained Techno as he handed everything to Ranboo who gratefully received it.

“I think I’ll be okay. I’ve seen Endermen spawn everywhere, including ice biomes and they seemed fine. I might just need to warm up a bit,” responded Ranboo, teeth clattering and hands shaking. Techno pursed his lips.

“You really didn’t call for help because of your pride?”

“Well, yeah. It’s the only thing I have. Why? Would you have made a fool out of yourself and called for help?”

Techno narrowed his eyes. This boy seemed way too similar to him. He felt his breath hitch. He wouldn’t have called for help either. He couldn’t even scold the younger man for what he did since he would do the same thing. 

“No, I would’ve done almost exactly what you did,” sighed Techno. Ranboo nodded, satisfied that his actions and decisions were being understood. 

“Wait, you won’t tell anyone about this, right? Especially not Niki or Tommy?” asked Ranboo, hesitantly looking Techno in the eyes. The Blade frowned. For an Enderman hybrid, the young man hated looking people in the eyes. 

“I won’t, don’t worry. I’m not THAT cruel,” grinned Techno. Ranboo brightened up at his response and took a big gulp of his hot chocolate.

“Well, you should get some rest. Here, you can sleep on this side of the couch. I can start the fire up again so you can warm up,” Techno suggested, moving to the fireplace.

“I should sleep in front of the fireplace so I will get warm faster,” theorized Ranboo.

“That’s actually not a bad idea. That’s fine, then. You can just stay there. I’ll be right back.”

Techno made his way to the basket near the door. If everything was still the same, there should be a pile of dry firewood right by the door. He remembered having to cut down so much wood with Phil right before every winter. It seemed like Phil never changed. The basket was still there, filled with dry firewood. Techno grabbed a couple and made his way back to the living room. He dropped the wood in the fireplace and grabbed the flint and steel on the mantel. With a little ignition, the fireplace erupted into life.

Techno heard a light flurry of claps behind him. He turned around and found a 6’6” Enderman-hybrid engulfed in a large blanket eagerly clapping his hands with a bright and happy look on his face. Techno felt himself smile and jokingly bowed. Wow, he was getting soft, but the smile that spread across the young man’s face was worth it.

“Do you need to get dressed? I don’t think that it’s okay for you to wear wet clothes,” Techno pointed out. Ranboo looked down and noticed that his Santa suit was almost soaking wet. He’s been out in the snow for so long that it melted on his clothes. Ranboo was about to wave off the suggestion when Techno threw something at him.

“Here, Tubbo left this sweater here when he changed into the one he got from Kristin. Tubbo is a bit smaller than you, but I’m pretty sure the sweater is Tommy’s so you should be able to wear it.” Ranboo took off his wet red coat and put the sweater on. It fit him fine, but the sleeves were a bit short. When Ranboo looked up to tell Techno that the sweater was good, the pig man was gone. Suddenly, he reappeared out of thin air. Woah, teleporting was Ranboo’s thing.

“Here, this is Wilbur’s old pyjama bottoms. We always leave clothes here whenever we spend the night or come over. Whenever Kristin finds them and folds them, she puts them in the coat closet. Wilbur’s only an inch shorter than you, so he’s the closest to your monstrous height,” Techno stated, throwing the pants to Ranboo. 

The Blade bent down to grab the empty cup next to Ranboo and slowly made his way to the kitchen. It wasn’t till a few seconds later that Ranboo realized that Techno was giving him time to privately change. Ranboo jumped out of his stupor and quickly changed. Now in fresh and dry clothes, the Enderman-hybrid was content. When Techno got back, he found Ranboo warming himself up by the fire.

“Oh, before I forget, here. I was your Secret Santa and you weren’t there when we were handing out presents, so you can open it now,” Techno mentioned, handing Ranboo a gift bag. 

The heterochromatic boy looked at him with wide eyes. He didn’t expect The Technoblade to be his Secret Santa. He gratefully grabbed the bag from Techno’s hands. He opened up the bag and carefully removed the purple and black tissue paper placed inside. When Ranboo pulled out what was inside, an audible gasp left his mouth.

“This. Is. AMAZING!” exclaimed Ranboo, eyes wide open and jaw dropped to the ground. 

In his hands was the most beautiful crossbow he’s ever seen. It was a regular wood crossbow one would see in the Nether that the Piglins would own, but it was upgraded. The wood surrounding the crossbow was engraved with intricate designs and accented with gold pieces. Actually, the designs on the crossbow were symbols of the Endermen and the End. Ranboo could make out an Eye of Ender and the Ender Dragon among the numerous intricate symbols. It was magnificent. 

“I didn’t really know what to get you. I found this old crossbow in the house and decided to repair it a bit. I even upgraded the looks of it by carving out these markings and adding gold to it. Now, whenever you go to the Nether, the Piglins will all be impressed by your cool crossbow,” chuckled Techno.

“This is the greatest gift I’ve ever received, Techno,” Ranboo whispered, sincerity evident in his voice as he turned the bow around in his hand to inspect it.

“Actually, it’s an enchanted bow. In addition to the regular crossbow enchantments, I imbued it with magic so it will work with your Enderman magic stuff,” mentioned Techno.

“Enderman magic? What do you mean?”

“Well, you can teleport, right? Whenever you fire this crossbow, you can teleport with it as long as you have an Ender pearl. Wherever the pear lands, you’ll go. In addition to that, you can also summon the crossbow. If you ever leave the crossbow at home or something, you can teleport it to you so you will always be ready for battle,” explained Techno.

“Oh my god. Techno, have I ever told you that you’re the greatest person I’ve ever met?” Ranboo asked, baffled at Techno’s gift.

“Don’t make my ego bigger than it already is,” chuckled Techno, leaning back into the couch.

“I think you overestimate my powers. I just told you how I couldn’t teleport off the roof. How do you think I can teleport a crossbow to me?”

“Then practice. People aren’t just born great, they have to become great. Like Sun Tzu said, ‘You have to believe in yourself’”.

Ranboo nodded; a fire of determination ignited in his red and green heterochromatic eyes. He was going to learn how to properly use this crossbow. It was the least he could do for Techno. The Blade smiled at him and ruffled his hair. Ranboo was about to say something when he remembered a very important detail.

“I’m actually your Secret Santa too, Techno. Here, this is my gift for you,” Ranboo announced and grabbed a large bag from his red sack. It was the largest gift in the sack. He handed the bag over to Techno.

The pink-haired man studied the bag. The bag was covered in pigs and pink decorations with rainbows everywhere. The tissue paper inside was pink with some glitter stuck on it. Techno liked it. He opened the bag and pulled out Ranboo’s gift for him.

It was a pure diamond sword engraved with strange markings that strangely resembled the markings on Ranboo’s crossbow. While the markings engraved on Ranboo’s crossbow were images, these markings seemed like writing. The diamond sword was also covered in intricate and complicated designs made out of gold, iron, and netherite. The hilt of the sword was carved into a crown that resembled the one the Anarchist always wore. On one side of the grip, a detailed depiction of the pig man’s alternate form, a pink anthropomorphized pig with large tusks, was engraved. On the other side of the grip, the word “Technoblade” was engraved in an ornate pattern.

“W-what do you think? I think your crossbow is way better than my gift for you,” stuttered Ranboo, embarrassed that he couldn’t give a better gift to Techno.

“Ranboo, this is amazing. This is probably the most beautiful sword I’ve ever laid my eyes on.”

“Really? Well, thank you. I made it myself.”

“These symbols. They’re words aren’t they? What do they mean?” 

“Uhhh… I don’t really know. They just looked cool,” Ranboo lied through his teeth as he completely avoided Techno’s calculating gaze.

“Hmm, okay. Yeah, they do look cool,” hummed Techno. He knew that the Enderman-hybrid was lying, but he wasn’t going to push it. If Ranboo didn’t want to tell him, then that was okay.

“Um, we should probably go to sleep. We’ve been up for a while and we have a party to attend tomorrow,” Ranboo mentioned, anxious to leave the topic behind. To his relief, the pink-haired man nodded his head and put the sword in his inventory. Ranboo did the same with his crossbow. 

Now that he’s been in the house in warm clothes and in front of the lit fireplace for a while, he was warmed up and feeling a lot better. He laid down on the floor and snuggled into the blankets and pillows that Techno dropped on the floor for him. The mentioned pig man made himself comfortable on the couch and mumbled some last words to Ranboo before falling asleep.

“Good night, Ranboo.”

“Good night, Techno.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? Like the tags say, constructive criticism is nice but we're sensitive so please be nice :(( As always, comments and kudos are appreciated!
> 
> (7174 Words)


	3. The Christmas Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas day and pure chaos awaits those who attend the party taking place at Phil's house. A lot happens. A lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, before we start off. We took four days to write the last chapter because it is absolutely MASSIVE. My friend and I would like to say an obligatory apology for giving you guys such a long chapter. We were going to split it up into two chapters, but it was too late. However, please enjoy and if you have any questions, comments, and/or concerns, please don't hesitate to comment them down below!
> 
> (13, 534 words)

Wilbur was the first one to wake up Christmas morning. The tall man had surprisingly not woken up Niki as he wandered out of his room. He made his way down the hall and into the living room to be greeted by a very interesting sight. 

Apparently, Ranboo did make it to the house, and he also managed to get Techno to not hog the couch, which is a surprise. Wilbur remembered that back when they were kids, they had to sleep in the same bed because his room wasn’t finished yet. Let’s just say that Wilbur woke up on the floor with back pain and small bruises on his side from where Techno would kick him until he finally got his own bed.

Ranboo was curled up on one part of the sectional couch while Techno was asleep on the other side. Wilbur walked further into the living room and found a crumpled red coat with white fluff on it. He picked it up and noticed that it was a Santa outfit. He glanced down and noticed a big red sack. When Wilbur opened it, he found a bunch of wrapped up presents complete with festive bows. ‘These must be Ranboo’s gifts,’ thought Wilbur as he carefully put everything back where he found it. He didn’t want to be caught snooping around.

The tall musician made his way quietly out the living room and into the kitchen. He was starving and he desperately needed coffee if he expected to be civil to anyone. While Wilbur was brewing some coffee and wondering what to eat for breakfast, he heard the tell-tale creak of floorboards that signaled to the man that his father was behind him.

“Good morning, Wil,” smiled the older man, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

“Good morning, dad! Here, I just made some coffee. I know how much people in this house can’t survive without having their coffee in the morning,” laughed Wilbur, handing his adopted father a cup.

Phil gratefully accepted the cup and sipped some delicious dirty bean juice. He looked down at the cup Wilbur handed him and stifled a small chuckle. The cup was pure white with art messily drawn on it. The most interesting part was the words “#1 Dad” written on it in red sharpie. 

Phil remembered the day he got the cup like it was yesterday. It was the very first Christmas that Tommy ever spent with them. Techno and Wil had a present for Phil, but Tommy didn’t. The young man, scrambling for a last-minute gift, grabbed the first thing he saw, a white cup in the kitchen cabinet. On Christmas morning, Tommy took some sharpies and decorated the gift he would then give to Phil. It won the best gift of the year.

The duo talked for a bit before two other people made their way to the kitchen. Kristin and Niki greeted the two men and grabbed their cups of coffee. Niki also made some hot chocolate, already knowing that Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo would want some.

“Oh, Ranboo’s here? He must’ve arrived late last night.” Niki scrunched her eyebrows in mild concern. 

“Ranboo is fine, Niki. I’m sure he has a very good explanation of why he arrived so late.” Wilbur touched her shoulder and reassured her. Niki nodded, believing Wilbur’s words. 

After a few minutes, two sets of footsteps made their way down the hall. Dream and Fundy arrived with ruffled hair and groggy looks on their faces, or what they assumed would be a groggy face on the blonde man since he was hardly ever seen without his mask.

“Good morning. Did you two sleep well?” asked Kristin fondly.

“Good morning, Kristin. Yes, we did sleep well. Both of us needed the rest after the… uh…  _ tiring  _ day we had yesterday,” Fundy replied, scratching the back of his neck. Dream nodded and yawned while he stretched. The two were served some coffee by Niki and they sat around the table while Phil and Wilbur prepared some breakfast.

Phil and Wilbur insisted on making breakfast. Their argument was that the ladies did most of the cooking last night so they should do most of the cooking this morning. Kristin and Niki were pleasantly surprised at the boys’ actions. The ladies, Fundy, and Dream sat around the kitchen table and happily chatted while Phil and Wilbur cooked.

The peace was broken by two sets of footsteps thundering down the hallway. Tommy and Tubbo came around the corner, whooping and hollering about the breakfast they smelled cooking. Fortunately for them, most of the food was already cooked and being set on the table just as they were coming in. Phil and Wilbur cooked some delicious looking pancakes, waffles, and eggs. Tommy and Tubbo salivated at the sight.

The two boys hastily sat down and dug into their food. The others around them laughed at the brothers’ antics. The light and joyful atmosphere was shattered by a loud thud that came from the living room. A low groan followed the initial noise.

“Uhh, Techno? Ranboo? You two okay over there?” Phil asked, mildly concerned.

“I would be even better if y’all weren’t so loud and disturbing me. I WAS HAVING A GOOD SLEEP!” seethed the pink-haired man, glaring at the group huddled in the kitchen and dining room. Wilbur was the first to laugh at the pig man’s agitated state, but after he uttered the first chuckle, everyone else followed his lead. Techno blankly stared, unimpressed by his family laughing at his pain. He huffed and made his way to the kitchen.

When Techno sat down to have his breakfast and a well-needed cup of coffee, Niki got up and made her way to the living room. She found her precious adopted nephew drooling all over his pillows with his hair sticking up all over the place. Niki softly giggled and gently shook Ranboo awake.

“Huh? Oh, mhmm… Good morning, auntie,” Ranboo mumbled, voice incredibly deep and raw. He lifted his head up for a second and opened one of his eyes to glance at his adopted aunt before dropping his head back down on the pillow.

“Good morning, Ranboo. You have to get up and eat some breakfast,” giggled Niki. When the Enderman-hybrid didn’t make a move after her statement, Niki playfully rolled her eyes.

“I made some hot chocolate,” sang Niki, knowing how much Ranboo loved hot chocolate.

Ranboo’s head shot up and he immediately sat up. Unfortunately, he sat up so quickly that all the blood rushed from his head and made him light-headed. He groaned and pitifully held his head, making Niki laugh at the younger’s antics.

“C’mon sleepyhead. Get up so you can eat before Tommy eats everything.”

“Oh god, Tommy’s already there? By the time I get there, even the plates will be gone.”

The duo made their way to the kitchen and found everyone else already sitting down and enjoying their meal. The two took their place and dug into their respective plates. 

“Good morning, Ranboo. I don’t think we’ve met before. If we have, it has to have been a while,” commented Phil, holding his hand out for a handshake. The heterochromatic boy gladly shook Phil’s hands and swallowed the food in his mouth before replying.

“I think we’ve only met a handful of times before, sir. I mostly hang out around Niki, my adopted aunt, and Tommy,” Ranboo clarified. 

“Ahh, then it makes sense why we’ve met before. Oh, and no need to call me ‘sir’. Just Phil is fine.” Ranboo nodded and made a mental note to call the older gentleman by his first name. 

“Hey, Ranboo. Why did you get here so late?” asked Tommy. Ranboo felt his breath hitch. Ranboo wasn’t a particularly bad liar, but he always felt bad lying to his friends. Plus, the Enderman-hybrid thought that Tommy would see right through him if he lied through his teeth. Thankfully, Ranboo didn’t have to come up with a convincing lie.

“Ranboo came here late because he got caught up dealing with something from his world. The mob farm he was working on broke so he had to fix it before leaving. By the time he left his world and logged onto this one, it was already super late. I was awake when he arrived so I just let him in,” answered Techno for Ranboo, coolly taking over the situation before Ranboo could make a fool out of himself.

“Yeah, what Techno said. I was actually so tired from fighting a bunch of mobs that when I got here, I passed out on the floor,” nervously laughed Ranboo, avoiding everyone’s gaze. Technically, what he said wasn’t a lie. He  **was** out fighting a bunch of mobs on the roof and it did leave him exhausted. Only Techno lied, not Ranboo. 

“Wait if you fell asleep on the floor, why were you on the couch?” inquired Wilbur, confused.

“Oh, sometimes I teleport when I sleep. Either that or I sleepwalked,” replied Ranboo.

“Neither, actually. I woke up again in the middle of the night and found you sweating by the fireplace, so I picked you up and laid you on the couch. I also put the fireplace out,” clarified Techno.

“Why did you wake up again?” asked Tubbo.

“I was coughing pretty bad last night,” confessed Techno.

“Did you take some medicine?” asked Phil, worried about his son’s health.

“Uh, no not yet. I was planning on taking some after breakfast.”

After Techno’s lies and Ranboo’s words of affirmation, the table started up multiple casual conversations and fell into a comfortable atmosphere. Ranboo was glad that Techno was a good liar, especially to his family, or else Ranboo would’ve been humiliated. The atmosphere was questioned again, but this time, it was Dream who spoke up.

“Uh, hey Phil and Wilbur, I noticed that you guys made all kinds of amazing foods for breakfast, but I also noticed some stuff missing. Where’s the uh-- w-here’s the bacon?” The room silenced. Dream was playfully smirking at the pigman, hoping for a good reaction. Before Dream could get his well-deserved reaction, another voice piped up.

“Yeah, Phil. Where’s the ham? I was kinda missing my protein this morning,” Tommy snickered. The tense atmosphere shattered the moment Tommy started to play along with Dream’s joke.

“I will literally throw both of you against a wall,” growled Techno, glaring at the two jokesters. At least they weren’t fighting anymore and they seemed to have put their differences behind them, for today at least. Techno was just mildly annoyed that the one thing they bonded over was Techno’s suffering. The Blade huffed as everyone around the table laughed.

After calming down, Tubbo noticed something about Ranboo’s outfit. 

“Hey, Ranboo? Is that the sweater Tommy lent me to wear yesterday?” Tubbo tilted his head to the side as he narrowed his eyes at Ranboo’s outfit. Everyone glanced at the Enderman-hybrid and found that he was, indeed, wearing the sweater Tubbo wore when he first arrived. 

“Wait… I think those are my old pants too,” added Wilbur, pointing at the heterochromatic boy’s trousers. 

“Oh yeah, you two are correct. When I got here, I was really dirty and soaking wet, so Techno gave me these clothes to change into so I could sleep comfortably. I hope you guys don’t mind,” clarified Ranboo. Wilbur and Tubbo reassured the hybrid that it was okay. 

“Why were you dirty and wet?” wondered Tommy. Ranboo felt his heart stop. Oh god, he had to lie to his friend. Before Ranboo could embarrass himself, Techno saved him once again. 

“After fighting all the mobs, Ranboo immediately made his way over here since he knew he was late. He didn’t have time to change so his outfit was dirty. When he was making his way to the house, it was snowing pretty bad so by the time he got inside the house, he was soaking wet.”

“You seem to answer for Ranboo a lot, huh, Techno?” Fundy pointed out, suspicious. 

“He’s nervous because he’s meeting a bunch of people for the first time. I know what it’s like to have social anxiety, so I just wanna help the kid out,” Techno shrugged nonchalantly. Fundy nodded, accepting the pigman’s response. Ranboo let out a quiet and relieved sigh. Thank god Techno was a master liar. 

After the semi-eventful morning, the group shuffled to do their own part to prepare for the party. Phil and Kristin were in charge of cooking the food for tonight. They enlisted the help of Niki and Techno. Niki was an obvious choice to help with the cooking since she made delectable desserts. Techno, on the other hand, was a cooking master. No one will ever forget Cooking with Technoblade. No one.

Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo were helping out by setting up the different games they were going to play. They planned on an archery range, a parkour course, and Christmas themed charades.

Tubbo set up the targets and gathered the bows and arrows for the archery range. Ranboo set up the parkour course since he was very tall and could teleport so he could easily cheese the course to set everything up. Lastly, Tommy had so much fun coming up with the words for the charades game. Phil noticed this and made a mental note to check the cards to make sure that they were appropriate. 

Wilbur, Fundy, and Dream were left with setting up the rest of the decorations. The atmosphere between the three was a bit thick with tension, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday. Clearly, Dream felt bad about the previous night’s events. He wanted to be a good boyfriend to Fundy. The orange-haired man has been so good to Dream and the least the hunter could do was be a good person to his fiancée’s family, especially his father. 

Wilbur felt the same way. He’s been a shitty father to Fundy for too long. Wilbur has a lot of problems, but Fundy is NOT one of them. The least he could do was tolerate the man his son loved, even if that man is a horrible and twisted person the musician hated. For today, Wilbur and Dream would get along for Fundy. The fox has suffered enough for them not to. It’s the least they can do.

After an hour’s worth of work, the inhabitants of the house found themselves mingling around in the living room and kitchen area. The four chefs were still cooking up a storm, but now, they had some people to keep them company. While they were lounging around, Ranboo remembered something very important.

“Oh, before guests start arriving, I guess I should show you guys my gifts. I know that I was Techno’s Secret Santa and that I was supposed to give him a gift and I did just that. However, I also got gifts for everyone else. I figured that since you guys were so nice for letting me stay the night and inviting me for a family dinner, the least I could do was give you guys some gifts,” Ranboo announced, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Aww, Ranboo you didn’t have to do that! You’re family to us! You’re Niki’s adopted nephew and you’re Tommy’s friend. We all know that I started out as Tommy's friend when he found me in a box in the middle of the road before I officially became a part of the Sleepy family,” laughed Tubbo.

“Tubbo’s right. You’re family now and we were glad to have you here. However, just know that I think I’m done with adopting kids. I’ve had enough boys to raise and I’m tired. Maybe it’s time for Techno to have a kid, so you should ask him to adopt you,” joked Phil and playfully elbowed the pink-haired man. The Blade stiffened and offered a strained smile to his father. Ranboo’s breath hitched and Niki’s eyes widened at Phil’s teasing words. The Enderman-hybrid fake coughed and Niki stifled a laugh. The story behind these three reactions may have to be told another day.

“R-right. Anyway! Here are your presents!” Ranboo presented, anxious for the conversation to move on to another topic. He grabbed his red sack and pulled out all the numerous boxes. He gave a specific one to each person until he only had one left in his hand, which he kept for himself.

Everyone tore open their package and opened up the chest that was underneath the wrapping. Inside each chest was an identical Christmas sweater. However, each sweater had a different name stitched on the back of it. The sweaters were red in color and made out of soft woolen material. The front of each was mostly barren except for a small Creeper head with a Santa Hat on the part of the sweater where the heart would be under. On the back, a name was stitched in white with designs of snowflakes surrounding it. The sweaters were topped off with gold trimmings. 

“Ranboo… This is amazing!” Kristin cried out, gleefully clutching her sweater.

“Dude, I’ve never seen such a pretty sweater in my entire life! This is an amazing gift, Ranboo. Now, I feel kinda bad for not getting you anything,” confessed Dream.

“Thank you! I figured that we could wear them at the party. That is, if you guys want to,” Ranboo hastily said.

“That’s a great idea, Ranboo! We should all wear matching sweaters!” Wilbur agreed, aggressively nodding his head. Everyone nodded along and decided to split up. Guests will be arriving soon and they have to be ready. However, Niki was looking for a particular person.

“Hey, Techno. Ranboo was your Secret Santa, right? What did he get you? What did you get him, since you were his Secret Santa?” asked Niki, curious.

“Oh, I got Ranboo a crossbow and he got me a sword.”

“Ooo, can I see the sword?”

“Sure,” Techno shrugged as he pulled the sword out of his inventory. Niki audibly gasped at the glorious sight and immediately asked Techno if she could hold it. The pigman handed her the sword and she turned it over to examine the markings.

“Aww, Ranboo carved ‘Father’ on this side. That’s cute,” murmured Niki, admiring the craftsmanship of the weapon.

“Wait, what? Did you say ‘Father’? Do you speak Enderman?” questioned Techno in disbelief.

“Well, yeah I do, silly. That’s how I was able to raise Ranboo so easily. I also taught him how to read and write in Enderman so I hope I’m literate in the language too. Why? Is something the matter?,” giggled Niki.

“No, Niki. Nothing is wrong. I’m just surprised that you know how to read Enderman, but I guess it makes sense,” uttered Techno. ‘Huh, I guess that’s why Ranboo was embarrassed and didn’t want to tell me what he wrote,’ thought Techno as he took the sword back from Niki.

At the same time this exchange was taking place, a trio was approaching the house. One of them was wearing a light blue sweater with a red rectangular box in the middle and a beige coat on top. A pair of black and white clout glasses sat atop his head. The other person approaching the house had on a white shirt with a fire symbol in the middle and a black coat on top of it. His messy black hair was tied back by a white bandana wrapped around his forehead. The last person approaching was wearing a beige Christmas sweater and a dark brown coat on top. A red Santa hat covered his cat ears and some mittens warmed up his paws. The trio approached the front door and the initial person introduced knocked on the door. The door opened and revealed Tommy holding some pieces of paper.

“GOGY!!! WELCOME!” Tommy exclaimed and grabbed the shorter man to hug him. George laughed at the younger boy’s antics and hugged him back.

“Hello, Tommy. I hope we’re not too early. Bad woke us up early and made us get here first,” explained George as he pulled away from the blond.

“Yeah! Bad isn’t even here yet. He left to go get Skeppy. I can’t believe that he made us get up so early,” whined the black-haired arsonist as the cat-hybrid behind him vigorously nodded his head.

“It’s good that you guys got here early, though. You get first pick of the food and you can enjoy the house before it gets ravaged when everyone else gets here,” Tommy shrugged.

“Anyway! Come on in. I’m sure that Dadza will be upset with me if I didn’t invite you guys in,” Tommy mumbled, opening the door wider for the trio to get in. When they walked in, everyone in the house brightened up and warmly greeted the trio. 

The minute Dream caught sight of George, a wide smile erupted across his face. Anyone could tell, even through the emotionless white mask, that Dream was ecstatic to see the brunette. He let go of his fiancée’s hand and moved towards the colorblind man, almost as if he was in a trance. George noticed him weaving through people to make his way towards the trio. A soft smile graced the short British man’s face.

“Hi,” George whispered.

“Hey,” Dream muttered back, breathless. George looked stunning. His beautiful brown eyes sparkled as they looked up at Dream. His pink lips were pulled into a delicate smile that was directed to the younger. The blond swallowed thickly and moved closer to the brunette. He took a deep, shuddering breath and noticed the scent of sweet peppermints wafting around George.

“You smell like peppermints,” shakily breathed out Dream. The brunette moved his hand up and clutched the back of Dream’s head, right where the clasp of his mask was. He gave a questioning look to the younger and the blond subtly nodded his head. George unclasped the mask and gently pulled it away from Dream’s face. 

Bewitching emerald green eyes met warm chocolate brown eyes. An audible gasp and a breath hitching were heard behind them, but the two didn’t register the sounds. George moved his other hand to tenderly hold Dream’s cheek. The blond moved closer to the warm touch.

“Is it just me, or did your freckles multiply?” George mumbled, brown eyes hooded, tracing the patterns of Dream’s freckles. The said man chuckled and pulled the shorter man closer to him by clutching his waist. He put his forehead against George’s and he was about to say something, but a throat clearing behind them interrupted him.

“Dream? What the hell are you doing?” Wilbur hissed as he glared at the emerald green eyes staring at him in surprise. With a jolt, Dream separated himself from George and looked around. Everyone was staring at them with either shock, disappointment, anger, or a mixture of all three. 

Dream didn’t realize what he was doing. The moment he saw George, it was like the world around them disappeared and it was only the two of them. Dream glanced at his fiancée and when he saw the hurt look evident in his eyes, he cursed his idiocy. 

“Uh, n-nothing, Wilbur. I was just greeting George. I haven’t seen him ever since the Christmas season started. I just missed my  _ friends  _ is all,” nervously stammered Dream, making sure to emphasize “friends.”

“Wow, Dream, can you hold me like that too? Or did you not miss me?” questioned the arson-loving man as he playfully glared at his friend. Dream laughed and launched himself at the other man.

“Don’t worry, Sapnap. I love you too,” reassured Dream as he tightly hugged the slightly shorter man. Dream was glad that Sapnap spoke up before things got more complicated. 

What was Dream thinking when he did that with George in front of everyone?! Especially Fundy and his family?! Dream was already on thin ice because of what he pulled last night with Wilbur and Tommy. The blonde man will be in so much trouble if he doesn’t start acting right.

What happened to caring about Fundy and the fox hybrid’s feelings? Dream shook his head and mentally slapped himself. ‘You’re Fundy’s fiancée, not George’s boyfriend. Stop hurting Fundy, you idiot,’ Dream scolded himself in his head as he pulled away from Sapnap.

“Antfrost! I didn’t think you were gonna make it today. I’m glad you’re here,” greeted Dream, eager to change the topic.

“Haha, yeah. I didn’t think I was gonna be able to make it either, but I managed. I’m glad to be here too. The decorations of the house are stunning!” Ant explained as he looked around to marvel at the decorations.

“Yeah, Kristin and Phil did most of the decorating. Me and Wilbur helped out with some of the last-minute decorations too. Fundy, my precious  _ fiancée _ , did all the decorating over there. It’s great, isn’t it?” Dream declared, moving back to grab Fundy’s waist and hold the fox closer to him while he pointed to the corner Fundy decorated.

“Wow! You guys did a great job! You’re really good at decorating, Fundy,” complimented George as he warmly grinned at the orange-haired man.

“Thanks, George. I’m glad someone appreciates me,” Fundy mumbled as he wiggled out of Dream’s grip and shuffled away from the maskless man. Dream suppressed a groan and muttered curses under his breath. He messed up, big time.

Before another awkward silence took over that would lead Wilbur to punch Dream, the doorbell went off. Tubbo, desperate to get away from the room, made his way to the door to open it. Two young men greeted him when he opened the door.

The taller of the two was wearing a large black cloak that concealed most of his body. However, hints of black and red revealed some of the colors the figure was wearing underneath his cloak. Tubbo noticed a pair of small red horns poking up under the cloak and a red tail snaking around the man’s legs. The shorter man next to him was wearing a bright blue coat with dark blue pants and navy blue boots. The sky blue beanie on his head completed the look.

“Bad, Skeppy! Welcome!” greeted Tubbo as he moved to the side to let the couple inside. The tense atmosphere present earlier thankfully broke at their arrival. Everyone shifted their attention to the newcomers, so the previous events were temporarily forgotten. 

After some light conversations and greetings, everyone split up to do numerous activities around the house. Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo were ecstatic to show off the games they set up in the backyard so Bad, Skeppy, George, Sapnap, and Ant entertained them. Phil, Kristin, Niki, and Techno continued cooking. Wilbur opted to stay in the living room and rummaged through the stacks of DVDs in the closet before he found “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. He happily played it on the tv and made some popcorn. 

While everyone was happily enjoying their Christmas, Fundy was on the roof. He was sitting on the fresh powdered snow and watching the activities below him in the backyard. He put his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs. His fox ears twitched while his tail swished back and forth. He heard the sound of someone climbing up on the roof and his snout twitched; it was Dream.

The blonde man quietly sat down next to his fiancée and observed the scene below them. George was with Tubbo as they were having a friendly archery competition. If Fundy strained hard enough, he could hear the two of them saying soft words of encouragement to the other. Sapnap was racing with Ranboo on the parkour course.

In the corner of the backyard filled with cobblestone monuments, courtesy of Tommy, the four other people were playing a wild game of charades. Skeppy was paired up with Bad while Tommy was paired up with Ant. Currently, Ant was acting out a phrase and Tommy was yelling obscene things at him while Bad screeched “Language!” every other word the younger uttered.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be down there and having fun?” asked a soft voice. 

“I think it’s much more fun to spend time with my beloved,” murmured Dream. He desperately wanted to hold Fundy, but he knew that it was too soon to touch the fox.

“Which one?” Fundy dryly scoffed. Dream flinched; he deserved that one.

“Babe… you know that I love you, right?” Dream whispered, fully turning his body to face his partner.

“I know, Dream. I have no doubt in my mind that you love me. I also have no doubt in my mind that you love George. I’m not blind, Dream. I see the way you look at him,” Fundy sighed, burying his head into his arms. 

The more he talked with Dream, the more he was changing into his alternate form of an anthropomorphized fox. The blond knew that Fundy only ever changed when he was upset or when his emotions were too much for him to handle. The masked man internally groaned, upset at himself for being the cause of Fundy’s negative emotions.

“I… I’m not going to lie to you, Fundy. I do love you, and George. But you have to understand that I made my choice,” Dream explained as he grabbed Fundy’s hand.

“This ring on your finger signifies my choice. I’m not going to deny my feelings for George, but I’ll be damned if you don’t know how much you mean to me. I love you so much, Fundy. Please don’t forget that just because I made a dumb mistake of showing affection to my friend,” Dream begged as he clutched Fundy’s paw. The fox-hybrid completely transformed into his alternate form and the blond could hear quiet sniffles as Fundy pathetically tried to hold back his sobs.

“I love you so much, Dream. I don’t want to lose you. I know how much George means to you and it would be cruel of me to take you away from him. However, I’m worried that he’ll take you away from me,” Fundy sobbed and tightened his hold on Dream’s hand, almost as if he was afraid the blond man would disappear before his eyes.

Dream’s breath hitched and he suddenly pulled Fundy to his chest. He clutched his fiancée close to him and tightly hugged him. The fox-hybrid sobbed onto Dream’s chest as the blond struggled to hold back his own tears.

“Fundy, I want you to remember that I won’t leave you for George. He won’t take me away from you, I promise. I know that I have feelings for George and that I really need to work on that if I want to marry you, but that’s the thing. I want to marry  _ you _ , not George. I made my decision, and we both know how stubborn I am. I will die before I change my mind and admit my mistakes,” chuckled Dream, moving away from Fundy so he can wipe away the man’s tears. 

He moved Fundy’s paws to the back of his head and motioned for the fox to take his mask off. When Fundy unclasped the mask, it fell with a soft thud onto the snow-covered roof. Dream had tears in his emerald green eyes as he lovingly stared at his fiancée. He put his forehead against Fundy’s, just like how he did earlier with George.

“You’ll be Mr. Wastaken in the future. I hope you realize that I’m never going to let you go, Fundy,” Dream passionately murmured as he grasped Fundy’s hand and gently kissed it. The fox-hybrid was slowly calming down. His form was now reduced to his fox ears and tail. The two cuddled on the roof for a good five minutes before a snowball smacked Dream straight on the face.

The two pulled apart and Fundy, now back in his human form, stared at Dream’s bare face covered with snow. He burst out laughing and clutched his stomach as tears started forming in his eyes. Instead of sad tears, these were good tears filled with serotonin.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” roared Dream as he glared daggers at the group below them. The eight of them got bored with their activities so they decided to split up into two teams to enjoy a good ol’ snowball fight. The Muffinteers (Bad, George, Sapnap, and Ant) were against the Chads (Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, and Skeppy). Bad and Tommy were the team leaders and the two of them chose their team names. The two teams took advantage of all of Tommy’s odd cobblestone structures and went after each other. Unfortunately for Dream, a stray snowball hit him directly in the face.

“OOPS! SORRY BIG D. ACTUALLY, I’M NOT SORRY. THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING A DICK!” Tommy hollered back as everyone laughed.

“DREAM! TOMMY! LANGUAGE!!!” Bad scolded the two as he dusted off the snow that fell on his clothes.

“Nice shot, Tommy!” Fundy yelled down and giggled at the betrayed look on his fiancée’s face. Dream shook his head at the group’s antics and the game below them started up again. 

While everyone was distracted by Dream and Fundy, Skeppy snuck over to the enemy side and stole some of their snowballs. Ranboo noticed so when the shorter, diamond-covered man came back, he threw a snowball that directly hit Antfrost in the face. Sapnap let out a huge roar and threw the snowball in his hand at Ranboo who ducked. Just like that, the war was back on and the couple on the roof was forgotten. 

“Let’s get down from here before another stray bullet hits us,” laughed Dream as he held his hand out for Fundy to take. The orange-haired man gratefully accepted and got up from the floor. The two made their way down from the roof. 

They didn’t notice Ranboo staring at them with his jaw on the floor. Apparently, there was a small ladder on the side of the house that led up to the roof. Ranboo face-palmed. He was SO GLAD that he didn’t ask for help. Ranboo had no doubt in his mind that Tommy would’ve written: “The man dumb enough to not see a ladder” on his tombstone if the younger knew what happened last night. 

Ranboo was shaken out of his thoughts when a snowball pelted the side of his head and pushed him back. He heard the other team hollering about him being the tallest and an easy target. The Enderman-hybrid got his head back in the game and started throwing snowballs back.

Back to Dream and Fundy, the two made their way to the back door to get back inside the house. Just as they were about to head inside, Dream noticed something above the doorway. He grabbed Fundy’s elbow and prevented the fox-hybrid from entering the house. Fundy looked at him, confused. Dream merely pointed up and watched as the orange-haired man looked up.

Right above the back entrance to the house hung a mistletoe. Fundy looked at Dream who was cheekily smirking at him. The maskless man playfully wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Fundy snorted as Dream wheezed.

“Tradition is tradition, I guess,” Fundy shrugged as he tugged down Dream and kissed his fiancée on the lips. The blond man squeaked in response before slowly kissing back. He didn’t expect Fundy to be so direct. He clutched his lover’s face as Fundy tangled his hands in the blond’s luscious locks. Their kiss got heated as Dream slammed Fundy against the glass near the door and his hands wandered all over the fox-hybrid’s body. Suddenly, their passionate make-out session was interrupted by the door opening and three pairs of eyes awkwardly staring at them.

The two immediately pulled away and attempted to straighten their clothes to make themselves look more presentable. Phil had a slight blush on his cheeks as he politely looked away from the couple. Wilbur narrowed his eyes and glared at the man who was touching his son inappropriately. Puffy guffawed loudly and wheezed at Dream and Fundy’s red faces.

"Did we just walk into something private, Little Duckling?" the sheep woman teased her foster son. She had arrived a few moments ago and had been talking with Phil and Wilbur when the group encountered the couple in a "compromising" situation. 

Dream didn't respond to his mother figure and instead put his mask back on and pulled it all the way down his face so they couldn't see the red that covered it entirely. Fundy had his ears pinned down on his head and all the hairs on his tail were sticking up. Dream grabbed a hold of his partner's hand and turned to walk the long way around to the front entrance of the house, pulling the fox boy with him as his partner shuffled behind him.

Puffy let out a loud laugh as soon as the two got out of earshot. "God, he has always been so awkward. He is a really sweet guy though once you get through all his… layers. I'm sorry if he gave your family any trouble," she said as he gave a soft smile to the two men who were standing near her. The two just looked at each other then looked back at Puffy causing her to sigh.

The three looked out into the yard and watched the two teams continue their fight. They ended up climbing the parkour structure and throwing snowballs, trying to knock each other off. Phil repeatedly had to yell for the young men to be careful since half of them hadn't even slept in the house and if their health reached zero they would end up back in the woods and would have to walk all the way back. 

"So who built all of that for them to climb on?" Puffy asked.

"Well, the parkour bit was Ranboo but the rest is made entirely out of cobblestone. Who do you think built all of that?" Wilbur joked back.

Puffy raised her eyebrow in confusion and stared at Wilbur. "You don't know about Tommy's weird fascination with cobble?"

"Why cobble?" She answered with her own question.

"We don't know. Tommy has had a weird thing with it ever since we found him. The boy really loves his stone. Once, we were exploring and I saw him get so excited just over finding a chest filled with it. He's a very odd child," Phil chimed in.

"We all have such weird kids," Puffy said, staring out at the young men roughhousing on the large cobble towers in front of them. Wilbur and Phil both nodded in agreement, which led to Wilbur yelling at Phil, asking how he was a weird kid, and Phil just laughing in response.

The three sat and watched when Tommy fell off the structure screaming. He hit the ground and died. He was hit with a snowball by Skeppy when he was trying to jump from pillar to pillar. With his death, the group all decided that it was probably time to stop and calm down. 

Phil walked back into the house to check on his son that fell and was greeted by three new guests that Kristin had just let in. The party was truly getting started now that almost half the people they invited were coming in. Phil made sure that he looked presentable before greeting the newcomers.

“Sam, Ponk, Jack! Welcome to the party! I hope you guys had an easy way getting over here.” Phil shook each of the three men’s hands and grinned at them.

“Merry Christmas, Phil! We got a bit lost from spawn, but we found all the torches you used to light up the path so we managed,” laughed Jack. 

Before Phil could respond he heard hard, heavy stomps down the stairs. 

"I'M GOING TO MURDER SKE- oh, hi Jack Manifold," Tommy changed his tone as soon as he finished his descent.

"Please don't. You already assaulted one guest, Tommy," Phil sighed. 

"Do we want to know?" Ponk asked while raising an eyebrow under his red and black mask.

"Dream is here," Tommy responded looking up at the masked man.

"Yup, that's all the context we need," Sam huffed in response.

As soon as the group made their way from the foyer into the living room they were met with the other young men who had been having a snowball fight. Tommy proceeded to yell at Skeppy about killing a member of his own team while Tubbo filled the new trio in about what happened on the parkour course leading to Ponk and Jack doubling over with laughter at the incredibly dumb situation. The group made their way outside to re-start their fight on new teams while the Muffinteers decided that they should just stay inside and relax after their "victory" during the snowball fight.

George and Bad wandered into the kitchen to get first dibs on the food that was just finished while Sapnap and Ant watched the ending of the movie that Wilbur had left on when there was another knock on the door. This time Kristin walked over to get it.

When she opened the door there was nobody outside and instead, just a box was left by the entrance. Kristin picked it up and brought it in when Techno and Niki also wandered over to the door.

"So nobody was there, just a box?" Niki asked.

"Apparently so," Kristin replied, handing it over to Techno to examine.

The pigman fiddled with it and eventually got the box open. Inside was just a note and a neat little bundle of cookies. Techno read the note aloud.

"Hello SBI weirdos, this is Callahan writing a note from me and Alyssa. Thank you for the invite but sorry that we could not make it to the party. We have some important work that Dream sprang on us at the last minute and so we can't make it. So as a thank you gift, Alyssa made cookies. Enjoy and hope to make it next year." 

Callahan ended the note with a “:P” which Techno also read aloud, causing giggles from the two women. 

"Well, it was thoughtful for them to leave us with a thank you present," Niki smiled.

"Niki, they called us weirdos," Techno emphasized in his usual deadpan tone to her.

Niki shrugged and simply said it takes one to know one. She grabbed a cookie out of the bag as the group walked back into the kitchen to put them on the table for everybody to snack on.

Sapnap was getting up to get one of Alyssa's cookies when he felt his communicator vibrate. He opened it and read the message blinking up at him.

> **Karl💖💞😍:** Hey, Sap! I’m in the world and I’m making my way to Phil’s house. See you soon <3

Sapnap felt his heart swell. His boyfriend was on his way over here and he was ecstatic. While the black-haired male loved hanging out with his best friends, he truly did miss Karl. He couldn’t wait to hug and cuddle the giggly man. 

Sapnap got up from the couch and excused himself. He made his way to the front door and walked outside. He was so anxious and excited to see Karl again that he would rather wait outside on the front porch than anticipate him knocking on the door. However, what he saw approaching the house made his blood boil and his hands clench into tightly balled-up fists.

Karl, in a soft-looking and colorful Christmas sweater that resembled what he usually wore, was walking merrily down the path. Sapnap noticed that the sweater seemed a size too big for the light brunette, but at the same time, it fit him perfectly. He even had those cute little sweater paws that made Sapnap melt like putty. Unfortunately, the person walking next to Karl brought a bitter taste to Sapnap’s mouth.

A taller blond man, wearing a pure white hoodie with some black stripes on the arms, was walking next to Karl with a brown paper bag in one of his hands. His other hand was-- Sapnap felt his jaw clench-- holding Karl’s hand. The two were chatting about something when Karl noticed Sapnap on the front porch. His face brightened up and he let go of the blond man to run up to the Arsonist.

“SAP! I missed you so much!” cried out Karl as he tightly hugged the slightly shorter man. Sapnap passionately hugged Karl back and glared at the blond man over Karl’s shoulder. The blond man merely grinned cheekily down on him. Sapnap let out an inaudible “tch” and buried his face in his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“I missed you too, babe,” mumbled Sapnap. He missed the older’s warmth and hugs. He didn’t even realize how much he needed to feel Karl in his arms until he felt it again. Sapnap tightened his hold. However, the tender moment was broken when someone cleared their throat.

“Oh, Punz! I almost forgot about you,” giggled Karl as he pulled away from Sapnap and moved closer to the taller blond male. Punz wound his arm around Karl’s shoulder and smirked at the shorter black-haired male who was seething. Sapnap gritted his teeth and sucked in a sudden breath. ‘Punz is ballsy for being touchy with Karl, right in front of  **me** ,’ thought Sapnap.

“What’s up, Sapnap?” Punz greeted the shorter male.

“Hopefully your arm, Punz. Get your paws off my boyfriend,” snarled Sapnap as he grabbed Karl’s forearm and pulled the slightly taller man closer to him. Karl fell into Sapnap’s chest with an audible oomph while Punz narrowed his eyes at Sapnap.

“Sorry to break the news to you pal, but Karl has the right to be near whoever he wants. He isn’t your property,” scorned Punz, irritated at the Arsonist’s actions.

“I know he isn’t, but remember that he’s  **my** boyfriend, Punz. He’s not yours, so back off,” growled Sapnap, possessively pushing Karl behind him. The man in question had a bewildered look on his face as he glanced between the two men having a stand-off because of him. 

“Yeah, not yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if Karl left you,” snarled Punz.

“Say that again, and I’ll beat the fuck out of you,” Sapnap fumed as he let go of Karl and moved closer to Punz. He pulled the taller male down to his height by the collar of his jacket while the blond scowled. Before things escalated even further, another voice piped up.

“Okay, okay. Can we stop comparing dick sizes, now? Both of you are huge, we get it. Now that that’s settled, can you two stop arguing like children in the middle of the front door?” scolded a newcomer. The three looked up and found Quackity standing on the path. Karl noticed something on the ground a bit behind Quackity, but he was so engrossed in the interaction between Sapnap and Punz that he didn’t question it.

“Quackity!” Karl yelled out, elated to see his other boyfriend. The Mexican man turned his attention to the taller brunette and ran forward to engulf him in a hug. They let each other go and Quackity turned to Sapnap and Punz, both of whom were still staring at him in shock.

“Punz, I get that you’re great friends with Karl and I know that you won’t do anything with him, but you need to chill. I know how much you love riling Sapnap up, but one day, that shit will backfire and you two will create something out of nothing, so drop it.” Quackity told off Punz before turning his full attention to Sapnap. He grabbed the black-haired male’s hand and pulled him closer to himself and Karl.

“Sap, babe, I love you and you know that Karl loves you too. I know that you love both of us so much, but you need to chill. You can’t get mad at every person that goes near Karl. The man can take care of himself and you know that. Plus, you know that Punz is just messing around and he purposely does this stuff in front of you so he can get this exact reaction. While I love seeing you riled up, I don’t like seeing you get riled up over something dumb, so you need to drop it too.

“It’s Christmas. Both of you need to act better and be nice to each other for once. If I, QUACKITY, have to scold both of you, then you know that you’re both being unbelievably childish,” Quackity finished. He was pleased to see the embarrassed looks evident on the men’s faces. 

Karl had a relieved look on his face. He knew that coming in with Punz would set Sapnap off, but he didn’t realize that it would make Sapnap THAT aggressive. The light brunette was glad that Quackity stepped in before Sapnap could give Punz a broken nose and the latter could return the favor by giving Sapnap a black eye.

“Anyway! Let’s get inside. It’s freezing out here and I’m STARVING. I heard that some delicious food was made, and I need to test out this rumor for myself,” chuckled Quackity.

“Wait, before we go in, I need to say something. I promise I’ll drop it after I ask this question. Why did you two arrive together?” questioned Sapnap, eyeing Punz and Karl, though now with less malice in his eyes when glancing at Punz.

“Oh, Punz was helping me with my brownies! I baked some brownies for the party and he offered to help bring them over here. You were busy with George, Ant, and Bad, so I didn’t want to bother you. I knew that Quackity was busy too since he went to that crazy Christmas Eve party last night. I didn’t even think he was going to make it today,” giggled Karl as he explained the situation.

“Damn, Karl. You could’ve still called me. I would’ve left if you needed me,” Sapnap pouted.

“But that’s the thing, babe. I didn’t  _ need  _ you. I was more than capable of handling the brownies by myself, but Punz offered his help and I wasn’t going to say no to free labor,” Karl shrugged.

“You don’t need me anymore?” Sapnap asked, pouting even more.

“I don’t always  _ need  _ you, Sap. However, I always  _ want  _ you,” Karl smirked. Sapnap felt his face go red hot. Usually, it was always Sapnap and Quackity making the flirtatious jokes with Karl blushing up a storm. It was rare for the light brunette to be this flirty.

“ANYWAY! I’m down to go in. I’m starving and I really wanna try these brownies Karl made,” Punz suddenly cut in. He knew that things were going to get sappy between the trio and he didn’t want to become the fourth wheel to a perfectly working tricycle. 

With agreement from everyone else, the four of them made their way inside the house. Quackity felt like he was forgetting something, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He shrugged. Oh, well. If it was really important, he would’ve remembered. He followed Punz and his boyfriends into the house.

Meanwhile, a young man dressed in a crumpled suit was shivering outside in the woods. He blearily opened his eyes and looked around. He saw Spruce trees around him, then noticed the cozy cottage just a few dozen blocks ahead. He could hear the squeals and laughter of people enjoying their Christmas day. The young man got up and dusted himself off. He cracked his neck and groaned at the pain he felt all throughout his body. 

He started to make his way to the cottage but clutched his head along the way. He was nursing the worst headache he ever felt in his life. Muttering curses under his breath, the young man quickened his pace to the house. Suddenly, he lost the feeling of the ground beneath his feet. Instead, he felt the ground on his face. He tripped over something and face planted on the snow.

A voice groaned out in agony underneath the young man. He looked down and found a brown-haired male with his face buried in the snow. The individual was wearing a bright blue onesie of Sonic the Hedgehog. The initial young man immediately knew who the individual was without even seeing his face.

“Connor? What the hell are you doing here?” muttered the young man, voice gravelly and raw, as he squatted down to look at the brown-haired man.

“Huh? Where is here?” mumbled Connor, voice muffled by the snow. He looked up and found a young man with dark brown hair and a pair of large ram horns on his head staring at him. His suit, while wrinkled, was pristine and high quality. His black eyes with rectangular pupils glared at the brunette. Even though the man was obviously tired and confused, his eyes still held a dangerous glint in them.

“I have no clue. I was hoping you would know,” replied the goat-man as he held out his hand for the other to take. When Connor reached for it, the other took his hand away, making the brunette fall again. The man in blue cursed the goat man, who smirked and snickered at the other’s predicament. The two stumbled their way to the front door and gave it a knock. The door opened and black rectangular eyes met brown circular orbs.

“Schlatt.”

“Wilbur.”

The musician clenched his jaw while the goat-man smirked. The two stared intently at one another. Connor, not noticing the tension thickly materializing in the air, yawned and burped. Loudly. This caught the two’s attention and their staring contest broke to look at the wanna-be Sonic the Hedgehog. 

“Oops, sorry. I get gassy sometimes,” chuckled Connor while he rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. Before either Wilbur or Schlatt could utter a word in reply, another person made their presence known.

“SCHLATT! CONNOR! WELCOME! I didn’t think you guys were going to make it. Well, technically, I did because I brought you guys here, but welcome!” interrupted Quackity as he shoved Wilbur aside and threw his arms open to greet the two confused men outside.

“Wait, you brought us here?”

“What happened, Quackity?”

Schlatt and Connor narrowed their eyes at the black-haired Mexican as he widened his eyes in fear. He realized that his actions weren’t being reciprocated with positive feelings. He scrambled to explain himself.

“Well, the three of us had one hell of a night at that Christmas Eve party. Both of you got WASTED! Anyway, the three of us passed out and I woke up first. I checked my phone and found a message from Karl saying that Phil was having this awesome Christmas party. I assumed the two of you would want to come so I took you guys and here we are!”

“Wait… You basically KIDNAPPED us when we were passed out and took us to a party we didn’t even know was happening?!” bellowed Schlatt.

“Yeah, but that still doesn’t explain why we both ended up on the ground outside,” added Connor.

“Oh, yeah I was carrying both of you at the same time and I got tired. Schlatt fell off my back first when I was making my way through the woods, then I dropped Connor at the front yard. I was going to get help to get you guys inside, but then I saw Karl, Sapnap, and Punz and I got distracted,” explained Quackity, sheepishly looking away. Schlatt face-palmed while Connor held his head in his hands. It was evident that the two were extremely hungover and exhausted after the crazy party last night.

“Well, whatever. We’re already here, might as well party again! WOOO!” screamed Connor as he barreled into the house with Quackity hyping him up. Wilbur and Schlatt were left awkwardly standing by the doorway. 

“Uhh, you can come in if you want to.”

“Really? You would let me into your house, Wilbur?”

“It’s not my house, Schlatt.”

“It was.”

“Not anymore.”

Schlatt stared at the taller man. Usually, people would be freaked out by Schlatt’s stare. It was already bad enough due to the pure intimidation rolling off of him in waves, but the fact that he had goat eyes made it even worse. It was like staring into the soul of a demon. Thankfully, Wilbur had plenty of practice staring into Schlatt’s eyes, so it didn’t bother him anymore.

“Fine, I guess I’ll go in. There’s no use in wasting some good ol’ booze,” sighed Schlatt as he gave in. The musician’s eyes brightened and a smile spread across his face. When the goat-man saw this, he subconsciously smiled back. For a moment, it was like they were younger again. The best of friends and carefree, without a worry in the world. After a second, the spell was broken and the two were back to normal. Broken, rivals, and enemies.

The two made their way deeper into the house and found most of the furniture in the living room pushed away into the corners of the room. A circle of chairs sat in the middle of the room and most of the people in the party were milling about in the room. From the looks of it, they were about to play a game of musical chairs. 

Wilbur and Schlatt stood in the circle of spectators that formed around the room and watched as 10 people got in the middle. Fundy, Ranboo, Bad, Skeppy, Ponk, Jack, Tubbo, Niki, Puffy, and Quackity were going to participate in the musical chairs game. Tommy was dj-ing in the back with his discs and the jukebox next to him. Techno and Phil stood near him to make sure that he wouldn’t be cheating to help Tubbo win.

The music started and the game began. Everyone in the house was laughing and hollering as the ten people in the middle danced around. Just as Jack was starting to breakdance, the music stopped and everyone scrambled for a seat. 

Badboyhalo was shoved aside by Ponk and he was left standing alone. He saw on the other side of the circle of chairs, Skeppy, staring at him. There was one empty seat near the both of them.

“Go ahead and take it, Skeppy,” Bad smiled at the younger boy.

“Nuh-uh! You take it Bad! You were going to have a seat until PONK shoved you off!” Skeppy pointed out.

“Hey! It’s part of the game!” Ponk grumbled in an attempt to justify his actions, but he was ignored by the couple.

“It’s fine, Skeppy. I want you to take it so you can win,” argued Bad.

“I refuse to win if you won’t be next to me,” Skeppy huffed, childishly crossing his arms.

“Jesus Christ, it’s musical chairs. Just take a damn seat. Neither of you will win,” scoffed Quackity. 

“Who do they think they are? Katniss and Peter? Oh god, make sure there are no berries near us or else they’ll commit suicide together even though they’re both losers,” mumbled Techno. 

Phil, Tommy, and Dream laughed loudly, with Dream doing his infamous wheeze. They were the only ones who heard the pigman make the joke. By the time they calmed down, Skeppy begrudgingly took a seat after Bad argued that the younger was closer to the chair. The game presumed with Bad moving to the sidelines. 

In the next game, Skeppy proceeded to target Ponk because he was the reason why Bad lost in the first round. This caused Ponk to lose since Skeppy shoved him to get to the chair. Bad was very happy for Skeppy yet slightly mad at him for pushing Ponk. Afterward, Jack was eliminated because he was breakdancing and failed to notice that the music stopped. 

Tubbo almost lost a couple of times, so Tommy made sure to stop the music whenever his best friend was near a seat. Phil and Techno noticed so they suddenly stopped the music without Tommy’s knowledge and Tubbo was eliminated. He joined Tommy by the jukebox. Niki was eliminated after Tubbo since she was nowhere near a chair when the music stopped.

Half of the original group was eliminated and only five more remained: Fundy, Ranboo, Skeppy, Quackity, and Puffy. Unfortunately, Ranboo was the next person to be eliminated. The music started playing and everyone was just getting into their dancing when it suddenly stopped. The Enderman-hybrid tripped over his own long legs and fell face flat on the floor. The other four were to advance onto the next round.

Dream was hollering and screaming the entire time, proud that his fiancée was so far into the game. He was grabbing the people near him and screaming “THAT’S MY FUTURE HUSBAND” every time Fundy moved. It was very endearing for others to witness, yet embarrassing for Fundy. 

Unfortunately, Fundy was the next person to be eliminated. He was so distracted by Dream’s cheers that he didn’t manage to snag a seat, causing him to lose. He dejectedly walked back into his lover’s arms. Dream profusely apologized and consoled Fundy, stating that the fox hybrid did so well. After Fundy left the middle of the room, two chairs were left with three people eyeing them. It was the semi-finals with Skeppy, Puffy, and Quackity.

People around them started betting on who was going to win with Bad leading Team Skeppy, Niki leading Team Puffy, and Karl and Sapnap leading Team Quackity. Unfortunately for Bad, he lost his bet because the diamond man was the next person to be eliminated, causing Puffy and Quackity to advance into the finale.

“WOOO! THAT’S MY MOM!!!” cheered Dream, somehow holding a pair of pompoms as Fundy stood next to him, also screaming and hollering about his future mother-in-law. Both of them had been drinking copious amounts of alcohol and were obviously drunk. It wasn’t surprising to see Fundy drunk since the man drank often, but seeing Dream, the mysterious Hunter, drunk was an unforgettable sight. 

The reason why the blond drank so much was because he was stressed out from all the events that occurred yesterday and today. Being drunk just seemed easier, and he was slightly correct. However, future hungover Dream would want to have a few words. On the other side of the room, people were cheering for Quackity.

“LET’S GO QUACKITY! DON’T LOSE NOW, BIG Q!!!!” Karl called out with Sapnap loudly agreeing behind him. The two desperately wanted their boyfriend to win, and fortunately for them, he did.

Right as the music stopped, Puffy was about to get in the chair, but Quackity shoved her over with his massive dumpy. Puffy fell with a yelp on the floor and Quackity took the win when he sat down on the final chair, making him the king of musical chairs.

“YESSS! LET’S GOOOO!!!” celebrated Quackity as he jumped up and launched himself into the waiting arms of Karl and Sapnap, both of whom were destroying their voices by yelling at the top of their lungs. 

Puffy laughed so hard at the sight that she was wheezing for oxygen with tears in her eyes. Dream was in a very similar state; like mother, like son. It was obvious that there weren’t any hard feelings over the game and that everyone was there to have fun and enjoy themselves during Christmas.

“QUACKITY! Your MASSIVE DUMPY won you the game! You would’ve totally lost if you didn’t have such a FAT ASS,” congratulated Schlatt as he leaned on the wall for support from laughing too hard. 

“Alright, alright. Now that we got to play musical chairs, who wants to play CHARADES?!” Tommy yelled out and shook a shoebox filled with folded pieces of paper. The people around him cheered in agreement and another round of fun party games took place.

When HBomb, Vikkstar, and LazarBeam walked into the house through the unlocked door, they watched the spectacle of George silently gesturing wildly in the air while Sapnap, Bad, and Ant yelled random words at him. On the other side of the room, they saw Sam wiggling on the floor while Jack stared at him, dumbfounded, Ponk yelled phrases at him, and Punz laughed on the floor.

“Welcome! You guys are here just in time for some quality entertainment,” piped up a voice next to the newcomers. They turned to find Schlatt leaning against the wall while holding a plastic red Solo cup.

“Oh, hello Schlatt! I didn’t know you were going to be here. I thought you would still be passed out after that insane party last night,” greeted Vik.

“Trust me, I was happily passed out. However, Quackity dragged me to this party against my will and here we are. I shouldn’t be rude to Phil and leave all this great booze,” chuckled Schlatt.

“Speaking of Phil, where is he? I would love to pay my respects to the host. This place looks great!” added Lazar, looking around at the sparkling Christmas lights and decorations.

“To be honest, I have no clue where Phil is. However, Kristin is sitting right there next to Puffy,” Schlatt answered and pointed at the couch where the ladies were conversing. Lazar thanked Schlatt and he and Vik excused themselves to greet the lady of the house.

“No offense, Schlatt, but I’m surprised they let you in here,” commented Hbomb as he glanced at the goat man.

“No offense taken, man. I’m very surprised too. Wilbur was actually the one who let me in. I don’t know if any of the others know I’m here yet, considering the fact that everyone has been so busy with the festivities. I mean, I’m not complaining. I can chill here and nurse this beer,” shrugged Schlatt as he downed the rest of his drink.

Fundy approached the two of them after he caught sight of Hbomb. The two started up a conversation, then Schlatt excused himself to go to the bathroom. The goat man maneuvered around the people walking about until he found himself down an empty hallway. He had no idea where the bathroom was, but he was sure that if he opened enough doors, he would be able to find it.

He tried out the first door he saw to his right but found it locked. He tried the door next to it and was pleased when it opened. He looked inside and found an incredibly messy room with clothes and other random objects strewn about. He noticed that there was a small mattress on the floor covered in blankets and pillows. When he saw the red and white shirt neatly ironed and hanging on the doorknob of what he assumed to be the closet door, he knew that this was Tommy’s room. He closed the door and tried the other door across from Tommy’s room.

He opened it and was faced by an aesthetically pleasing room. The sheets on the bed were pure white but there was a warm and soft-looking yellow blanket draped across it. Schlatt noticed an acoustic guitar sitting in the corner of the room and an electric piano against one of the walls. It was obvious who’s room this was, and Schlatt knew that. 

Without thinking, he walked inside and closed the door behind him. He knew that being in Wilbur’s room without the musician’s consent wasn’t right, but the goat-man couldn’t help himself. He had to be in the room again, even for just a second. 

He walked further into the room and took a deep breath. In an instant, it was like he was a kid again. He remembered sneaking into Phil’s house in the middle of the night to see Wilbur. He remembered pelting the taller man’s window with small rocks till the latter woke up. Then, he would let Schlatt in and the two would sit around Wilbur’s room and talk about random stuff until they both passed out on the floor. Schlatt would always wake up alone with a plate of food next to him. Phil knew that he was coming in there, but he let the boys have their sneaky fun.

As quick as it came, the memory was gone and Schlatt was back in the present. He slowly blinked and looked down on the bed. He noticed a white sweater with some red writing and navy blue markings on it. He picked it up and felt laughter bubble up in his throat.

The sweater he was holding was actually a crewneck. It had the word “SCHLATT” in big red capital letters with “‘20” in navy blue writing. There was an illustration of an eagle spread out with a bundle of arrows and an olive branch in each of its talons in the same navy blue ink as the “‘20”. It was Schlatt’s campaign merchandise.

“What the bloody hell are you doing in here?” yelped an all-too-familiar voice to Schlatt. The goat man turned around and found Wilbur Soot glaring at him with his arms crossed across his chest.

“Nice merch,” smirked Schlatt. The taller man widened his eyes and a blush spread up from his neck onto his face. He huffed at the goat-man in front of him.

“I didn’t buy it. Dream got it for me as a gag gift for our Secret Santa Gift Exchange.”

“It’s a perfect gift if you ask me.”

“Of course you would think that. It’s your merch.”

“Yeah… Y’know it’s been a while since I saw you wearing something of mine,” muttered Schlatt as he gripped the fabric of the sweater. Unwanted emotions, thoughts, and memories were rising up his throat like bile. Schlatt suddenly didn’t feel as drunk or hungover as he initially did and thoughts of going to the bathroom were forgotten.

“W-what?” stammered Wilbur, staring at the man in front of him. Schlatt felt his breath hitch. He didn’t mean to say that out loud. Hell, he didn’t even know he was thinking about it. He stumbled to do damage control.

“Nothing. You know what? I have a huge shortage of these babies, so why don’t I take this off your hands? I know for a fact that you won’t wear it and I’m pretty sure you’re probably going to burn it or something. Why don’t I take it off your hands?” offered Schlatt, completely hiding the things he felt behind a stone-cold exterior. Unfortunately for him, Wilbur knew him long enough that the taller had a key to unlock the goat man’s true thoughts.

“Wait, no. I want it,” Wilbur blurted out without thinking.

“What? Why?”

“It was a gift. It’s not polite to give away gifts given to you.”

“ _ Dream _ gave it to you. You don’t care about him.”

“You’re right,” ‘I care about you,’ Wilbur thought, yet bit his tongue before he could say it out loud. Wilbur scolded himself in his head.

‘Wilbur, GET A GRIP! This isn’t the Schlatt from the past. 

This isn’t the Schlatt who used to make half-jokes and make you laugh by doing literally nothing. 

This isn’t the Schlatt who loved listening to you sing about squids. 

This isn’t the Schlatt who you lov--’

He sharply inhaled. He didn’t love Schlatt and he never will. The musician tightly clenched his jaw and held out his hand for the sweater. Schlatt looked at him with an unreadable expression for a few seconds before reluctantly giving him the sweater.

Wilbur took a shaky breath and clutched the sweater to his chest. Schlatt was about to say something when the two of them heard loud yelling coming from outside. The two looked at each other for another moment before Wilbur shakily spoke up.

“We should head back outside and see what the ruckus is about.” Schlatt stiffly nodded his head and motioned for the taller man to open the door. When he saw Wilbur try to discreetly wipe a few tears from his eyes, he never mentioned it. When the musician saw Schlatt linger a bit longer in the room he may have called home once, he didn’t mention it. 

The two made their way down the hall and into the living room where almost everyone was gathered. 

"Um, anybody wanna explain why the fuck there’s so much yelling?" Schlatt asked nobody in particular.

"It's… Eret. Ranboo let him in and now uhh…  _ somebody _ is out for blood," Tubbo whispered as he sneaked his way over to his older brother and his ex-friend.

"You mean that one weird king dude? I don't know they seemed pretty chill to me."

"Schlatt, I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation," Tubbo looked pleadingly at his brother who was already making his way through the loud and noisy room of people trying to understand what all the yelling from the front was about. 

When Wilbur was finally able to reach the foyer, he was greeted by Tommy shouting at the tall figure who was still currently in the doorway as well as a pleading Ranboo who, as soon as Wilbur got into his field of vision, started rambling about how if he knew who they were he wouldn't have let them in.

Wilbur sighed and walked over to the child that was yelling and put a hand on his shoulder to get him to stop.

"Hello, Eret," Wilbur said rather forcefully.

"Hiiii, Wilbur. Merry Christmas," The tall figure greeted with a pained expression on their face behind their blacked-out shades.

"I take it you were invited?"

"Um, actually no… I just wanted to stop by and leave a gift I made. Look I'm sorry if I'm crashing the party or anything like that it's just-"

"Eret, oh my gosh it's been forever since I've last seen you," Niki said as she ran over to hug them.

"Hey, so it wasn't a joke you actually did come," and suddenly Fundy was also there hugging Eret as well.

'God why couldn't this day just be over yet,' Wilbur thought to himself. He already had enough past trauma brought up; he didn't need more.

But just looking at how happy Niki and Fundy were, he couldn't just tell him to leave. He sighed and walked over to Tommy and, in a forceful tone, whispered "Do not make a scene just let them stay for today, and then you can yell at them all you want afterward."

"Fine," Tommy grunted back, glaring Eret down.

The festivities resumed and the party went better than most thought it would. There were a few hiccups, but nothing compared to yesterday and the events of earlier today. Everyone left the party feeling pleased and festive. The perfect way to end Christmas.

* * *

Purpled had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. While he mostly spent it alone, he had a lot of fun. He logged onto the Hypixel server and talked to some of his friends like SammyGreen, Astelic, and Gamerboy80. He even received some presents from his friends and loved ones. To say that Purpled had a bad Christmas would be a complete lie. 

When he logged onto the Dream SMP, he didn’t expect there to be a large crowd near spawn. He was going there to meet up with Ponk to hang out and see what he did for Christmas. Purpled didn’t hear anything from any of the members in the SMP so he was eager to meet up with them and greet them for the holidays, even if it is, technically, after Christmas.

“Ponk! Merry late Christmas!” greeted Purpled as he ran up to his friend.

“Purpled! Merry late Christmas to you too!” grinned Ponk as he gave the younger a warm hug.

“How was your Christmas?” asked Purpled.

“It was AMAZING! We played this hilarious game of musical chairs, but I got targeted by Skeppy because I pushed BadBoyHalo out of the way. Then we played charades and it was so funny! God, you should’ve been there,” wheezed Ponk while he started laughing when he remembered yesterday’s glorious events.

“Hey, guys! Wait, are you two talking about Phil’s Christmas party last night?” a new voice piped up. Wilbur was approaching them and Purpled noticed him wearing Schlatt’s 2020 campaign merch. Purpled felt his eyebrows furrow in confusion. He thought that they hated each other.

“Yup! It was insane wasn’t it?!” Ponk answered.

“Insane?! I don’t remember half of it!” Fundy suddenly exclaimed. Purpled turned around and saw the orange-haired man making his way to stand next to his father.

“Of course you didn’t. You and Dream got so drunk that by 9 pm, the two of you were passed out,” grunted Technoblade as he approached the group with Phil, Tommy, and Tubbo closely following behind him.

“Speaking of passing out, I’m pretty sure Bad and Skeppy are still asleep since I called them this morning and neither of them answered,” commented Tubbo.

“Sapnap, Karl, and Quackity are for sure still passed out. I’m pretty sure George is just sleeping in.” Purpled whipped his head around, mind boggled at what everyone was talking about. He found Dream crouched on top of a tree, watching the group below him.

“Speaking of sleeping in, I’m surprised you two aren’t sleeping in. Almost everyone decided to take an easy day today. Callahan and Alyssa are both gone for the holidays. Sam, Jack, HBomb, and Punz all slept in. Niki, Puffy, Eret, and Ranboo are probably awake, but they’re most likely having a chill day. Ant is spending time with his boyfriend, Velvet. Lastly, the only people I know who aren’t taking it easy are Connor, Vik, and Lazar. The three of them decided to go to another party today,” listed out Phil.

“What party is everyone talking about?” Purpled exclaimed, bewildered by everyone’s nonchalant attitude and vast knowledge about this supposed party.

“Phil’s Christmas party? Everyone was invited to it, Purpled, even me,” a new voice rumbled. Purpled turned around and felt his heart drop. He watched as Schlatt approached the group and stood next to Wilbur. Purpled noticed the musician brightly smile at the goat man, but he decided not to mention it. He had more important matters to attend to.

“THERE WAS A PARTY?!?! EVERYONE WAS INVITED?! INCLUDING  **JSCHLATT** ?! HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?!” Purpled exploded. Everyone stared at him in shock.

“Purpled, I’m pretty sure we invited you. Did you check your communicator?” Phil explained, attempting to calm down the blond boy. The 17-year-old checked his communicator and found no message from Philza Minecraft.

“I don’t have a message from you.”

“Me and Kristin, my wife, were doing the inviting. I messaged half the people and my wife did the others. Maybe she messaged you. Check your new messages from people you don’t know.”

Sure enough, there was a message from an unknown person inviting Purpled to the big Christmas party at Phil’s house. The blond boy felt a curse rise up from his chest.

“I can’t believe I missed an awesome party because I didn’t check my messages,” whined Purpled, dejected.

“It’s fine, Purpled. I’m sure someone took tons of screenshots and maybe even recorded some stuff,” Ponk reassured his friend.

Later, Purpled found out that Phil was supposed to do all the invitations but got tired from it so Kristin took over. Purpled was under Kristin’s list so it made sense that he didn’t get a message from someone he already knew since he has never met her before. 

Schlatt was also under Kristin’s list and she invited him because she thought he and Wilbur were still friends. She was not aware of their current situation. Eret was under Phil’s list and the latter chose not to invite them since he knew that Tommy and Wilbur would be upset. To say that Purpled was sad would be an understatement. Purpled was devastated.

“You’ll be okay, Purpled. There will be other parties to attend and I’m sure that you will be invited first,” Fundy added, attempting to console the younger male despite his pounding headache. 

Suddenly, Dream jumped down from the trees and stood next to his fiancée. He turned to Purpled with a serious look on his face and opened his mouth to speak.

“Here’s the craziest thing that happened at the party. I learned about the SPIRIT of Christmas.” 

A beat of pure silence washed over the group.

“I swear to God, Dream, I will actually punch the fuck out of you,” Tommy threatened as he started to aggressively move towards the wheezing green man. Techno held him back with one arm.

“I thought we were going to pretend that didn’t happen,” pouted Tubbo. Those who knew what happened said nothing yet sighed at the predicament in front of them. The rest, who had no clue about what happened on Christmas Eve, looked between Dream and Tommy with confused looks on their faces.

Purpled was definitely never going to miss a message again. He sighed, heartbroken that he had no idea about the SPIRIT of Christmas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was the story? My friend and I plan on writing more one-shots and stories for MCYTs. We currently have the next one planned and it will reveal the reasons why Techno, Ranboo, and Niki were acting sus and why "Father" was engraved on Techno's sword. You won't need to have read this one-shot, but it helps. That one might take a while so please spare us some patience. As you can see, we don't mess around with quantity and quality, so please understand why it takes us a while to write even ONE chapter. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed our little story and our fun headcanons. Please comment and Kudos! They mean a lot to us <3 Have a wonderful New Year, everyone!
> 
> (13, 534 words)


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